Carnival season will have a very different look since the last time it took over the Crescent City in 2020, just weeks before the COVID pandemic tightened a grip that still has yet to fully loosen.
Factor in a shortage of officers in the NOPD that will force changes to almost every New Orleans parade’s traditional route, and Carnival 2022 will be one like no other before it.
And, as Mardi Gras historian Arthur Hardy told Tommy Tucker on WWL Radio, tonight will give every New Orleanian their first look at how the myriad changes will play out.
“It’s going to be a good test run to see A) how are the parades going to roll all from the same spot following one another and B) what will the crowds be like? You have concerns about crime, COVID and cold, cold weather. I think the crowds are going to be big. I really do,” Hardy said.
As for what’s on tap this weekend, Hardy laid it out.
“A lot to look forward to,” Hardy said. “A new parade in Metairie – an African-American male Krewe of Symphony. It’s going to follow Excalibur. There’s so much this weekend from Barkus to Cork in the French Quarter. And we’ve got three parades starting from the same spot tonight, five tomorrow, three on Sunday. The logistics of that – this is going to be a good test to see how the rest of the season is going to go.
And of course you’ve got Family Gras starting tonight in Metairie. So no lack of choices, and it used to be you could do it all. But you can’t anymore. I remember nights when you could catch a parade in Chalmette, take the ferry and catch something in Algiers, come back and see something Uptown.
Can’t do that anymore. There’s just too many choices.”
There are of course some lingering questions that Hardy said will start to get answered tonight.
“There’ll be some kinks, some logistics to work out,” he said. “How do you stage the floats, the bands? How do you get the school buses in and out? And most of all, where do you park now that you have more people in a smaller area? But I bet it’s all going to work out fine.”
But Hardy also holds a lot of optimism for how the krewes and the crowds will adapt.
“In general, all I’m hearing is good news and a lot of expectation from people,” he said.
You can see the full parade schedule for the entirety of the Carnival season by clicking here.
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