With costumes, beads, music, New Orleans marks Fat Tuesday
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Dressed in elaborate costumes, dancing to the beat of brass bands and clamoring for beads from passing floats, thousands of people gathered in the streets of New Orleans to mark the culmination of the famous Mardi Gras celebration Tuesday.
The last day of parades rolled along St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street, float riders throwing beads to bystanders as revelers in other parts of the city like the French Quarter and the Marigny partied in the streets in elaborate costumes.
Caroline Thomas, from New Orleans, spent weeks creating her elaborate costume featuring a massive feathered headdress so striking that bystanders wanted to take photos with her.
Others costumes included an man wearing a Steve Harvey mask standing with two women wearing beauty queen sashes that read "Miss Colombia" and "Miss Philippines," in homage to Harvey's blunder at the Miss Universe contest.
The festivities come to an end at the stroke of midnight when a wedge of mounted police officers rides down Bourbon to clear it of revelers and declare the party over.
Riders in the Zulu parade also threw out small stuffed animals, specially decorated beads and hats with the words "Zulu" emblazoned in yellow.
Families lined up early along the side of the streets or on the median — called the neutral ground in New Orleans — to get a good seat, often bringing ladders with specially designed seats on top for kids to sit in and catch beads or throws.
Naomi Shows, from Covington, Louisiana, came to the French Quarter with her three children, their black-and-white faces painted like skeletons inspired by Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead: It's been a tradition here for so long.
People along the parade route wore thick jackets and hats, and wrapped themselves under layers of blankets as they watched the floats roll by.