New Orleans – Thousands of hurricane-weary residents joined with rowdy visitors for Fat Tuesday, taking a break from rebuilding New Orleans to put on wild costumes and celebrate the second Mardi Gras since Katrina.
John Ferguson, who is still rebuilding his house almost 18 months after the storm, said of the celebration: “We never needed it more. I work all day at my job, then I work all night and all weekend on my house. I just want to eat, drink and have fun today.”
Many spectators spent the day along the parade routes or in the French Quarter, where the first Mardi Gras parade of the day was staged by the 1,250-member Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, a predominantly black group whose members wear grass skirts and blackface makeup in parody of stereotypes from the early 1900s, when it was founded.
“I’m hyped up,” said Ike Williams, a 42-year-old Atlanta contractor marching in his first parade as a member of Zulu’s Walking Warriors. “This is the center of the universe right now.”
Earlier in the day, Mayor C. Ray Nagin rode a horse down St. Charles Avenue.
“We’re going to make it happen,” Nagin told the crowd at Gallier Hall, which served as city hall for over a century. “We’re going to rebuild this city regardless.”
Nagin urged tourists to spend money. “We need the tax revenue bad,” he said.
The crowds appeared larger than last year, when an estimated 700,000 people were in the city for the final weekend of Mardi Gras. The city’s 30,000 hotel rooms were 95 percent occupied, said Fred Sawyers, president of the Greater New Orleans Hotel & Lodging Association.
Along some parade routes, crowds listened to Pete Fountain’s Dixieland jazz as his Half Fast Marching Club kicked off the day. It was the 46th time the clarinetist had made the march from Commander’s Palace restaurant in the uptown section to the Mississippi River.
“This is like old times,” said Fountain, 76, who lost his house along with his gold records and collection of instruments in the hurricane. “New Orleans will always get ready for a party.”
