New Orleans
Clarinetist Pete Fountain played Dixieland jazz, 1,250 members of Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club paraded in grass skirts and blackface, and hundreds of thousands of revelers partied as New Orleans this week celebrated its first full-scale Mardi Gras since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in August 2005. The festival’s first Mardi Gras parade rolled out Monday night, with actress Patricia Clarkson and New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton leading the Orpheus parade, organized by singer Harry Connick Jr. For locals, the revelry was a welcome relief. “We never needed it more,” said John Ferguson, 41, who’s still repairing his hurricane-damaged house. “I just want to eat, drink, and have fun today.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Political cartoons for February 22Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include Black history month, bloodsuckers, and more
-
The mystery of flight MH370The Explainer In 2014, the passenger plane vanished without trace. Twelve years on, a new operation is under way to find the wreckage of the doomed airliner
-
5 royally funny cartoons about the former prince Andrew’s arrestCartoons Artists take on falling from grace, kingly manners, and more
