Parades: Druids and Nyx

It's Mardi Gras, and my Blog entries, like the parades, will come fast and furious for a few days.

Wednesday evening was Krewe of Druids and the brand spankin' new Krewe of Nyx. These are both somewhat formal parades (unlike Krewe Du Vieux), featuring tractor pulled floats and some canned (recorded) music, as well as huge marching bands, either high school or military. I fact, I've seen more high school marching bands in the last few days than I can count, although you must remember this is New Orleans, so these kids are awesome musicians (unlike the high school bands in most other places I've been). These bands are an experience in themselves!

Funny story: Anna Hughes was getting out of work at her restaurant, which is on the parade route, so we picked her up to take in the parades with us. She was less than excited, saying "I guess I'll stay for a little bit of the parade." Once it started she was exhuberant. After three hours of intense excitement, she admitted the only parade she'd ever seen before was the Rose Bowl Parade, so she had no idea how awesome New Orleans parades would be. And she loved the marching bands.

The day had been rainy since morning, and there was fear among the gathering crowd that the parade would be called off. But within half an hour of start time, the fearsome horseman shown above rode by, and the parade began.

The parade went on despite the weather but the dancers for the first marching band wore raincoats...

After a marching band or two, the Druid floats began to pass. The first was the Tree of Life.

On each tractor-pulled float are members of the Krewe, throwing Mardi Gras beads and favors into the very excited crowd. The Druids are a pretty scary bunch! (By the way, they just throw the beads into the crowd at random. Women need not disrobe to get them, only be able to catch well. That other stuff only happens on Bourbon Street on MG night).

The Muff-A-Lottas are a sexy play on a local meal, Muffelettas. They advertise themselves as "all you can eat."

The Druid's theme this year was Druid Circus...

...complete with scary clowns...

...a lion...

...and this handsome guy.

Lauren collected a LOT of beads.

This aint no Rose Bowl...

The girl standing in the crowd beside us was thrown a Druid hat...here she models it with Lauren, Anna and Stephanie.

The awesome New Orleans Sirens.

The first ever Krewe of Nyx parade was next:

I am not even covering the marching bands, the dancers and the horse guard...I will do a seperate entry on those, perhaps after Mardi Gras itself. Tomorrow, however, I will tell you about Muses!

Until then, from Mardi Gras, this is Kenny Klein explaining it all.