A house on LePage St. in New Orleans was converted to a stationary ‘float’ by the Krewe of Red Beans ‘Hire a Mardi Gras Artist’ program.
So many things have been cancelled this year! But the people of New Orleans are not taking the cancellation of their beloved Mardi Gras lying down. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Doug MacCash writes at NOLA.com, “Carnival season 2021 may lack the usual parades, marching bands and big bags of beads, but never-say-die New Orleanians have taken their holiday back by inventing a whole new way of celebrating. …
“Socially distanced float houses have become a thing. A really big thing. … Lavishly, lovingly, laughingly decorated houses are becoming as ubiquitous as potholes. …
“Tiffany Tandecki, a marketing and development exec, said the thing she would have missed most about Mardi Gras parades is the satire. So she transplanted some Carnival-style comedy to her 5975 Canal Blvd. home for the pleasure of passing commuters. Tandecki used the characters from her TV binge-watching fave ‘Schitt$ Creek’ to lampoon the crumbling streets of her Lakeview neighborhood and COVID-19-era frustrations in general.
“In Tandecki’s view, the sweet-tart sitcom, in which a family of millionaires finds themselves adapting to small-town life, is a perfect metaphor. There’s millionaire Moira Rose shaking up an afternoon martini to take the edge off the stress of home schooling. There’s disdainful son David passing judgment on the inconvenient virus with raised eyebrows. There’s ditzy daughter Alexis stating the obvious: ‘I miss my life.’ And there’s bewildered hubby Johnny, standing beside a burglarized Lakeview car with a smashed-out window.
“The painted plywood cutouts of the ‘Schitt$ Creek’ characters standing in Tandecki’s front yard look exactly like the sort of thing you might see on a passing Carnival float, because they were made by professional float maker Lindsay DeBlieux, who Tandecki hired to bring her vision to life. …
“For DeBlieux, like most Mardi Gras float artists, the cancellation of this year’s parades was a catastrophe. Her employer, Mardi Gras Decorators LLC, tried to keep the staff employed as long as possible, she said, but in December, she was laid off. Thank goodness that by that time, the float house fad was fast taking root.
“Almost immediately, DeBlieux said, she was commissioned by three homeowners who planned to participate in the Krewe of House Floats, a citywide stationary house parade. … Then she was enlisted into the Krewe of Red Beans ‘Hire a Mardi Gras Artist’ campaign that is producing some of the city’s most elaborate float houses.
“Of course, DeBlieux welcomes the income at a time when many of her fellow citizens are unemployed. But the float house phenom is important in another way, too. Despite the popularity of parades, the talents of float artists can go unnoticed in the joyful chaos. Carnival 2021 has helped slow down the parade, so to speak, and let the creativity shine. …
“Megan Boudreaux, an insurance claims adjuster and member of the Leijorettes Carnival dance troupe, has made a historic impact on Mardi Gras. She’s right up there with the first person who put a plastic baby in a king cake, or tossed the first doubloon. … Boudreaux’s contribution began humbly. She just didn’t want to sit out Carnival 2021. So she planned to decorate her front porch and maybe toss trinkets to passersby on Mardi Gras morning. …
“Boudreaux didn’t invent Carnival house decoration, of course. But she made it into a movement. In no time, her Krewe of House Floats Facebook page attracted thousands of do-it-yourselfers aching for a way to safely celebrate, plus homeowners eager to employ professional artists. Before Boudreaux’s widening eyes, KOHF subkrewes sprouted up in 39 neighborhoods across the city. …
“On Feb. 1, the KOHF plans to launch an online map that will allow Carnival fans to tour decorated houses in social-distanced safety. Boudreaux said it was startling to realize that roughly 3,000 participants have added their addresses to the site. Some of them live far, far from the parade routes. …
“Artist Devin DeWulf, the captain of the Krewe of Red Beans, a marching group known for its dizzyingly complicated costumes decorated with dried legumes, has become a COVID-era hero. His organization raised more than $1 million to support restaurants by supplying meals and snacks to front-line hospital employees. To help provide float sculptors and painters with work, the krewe founded the Hire A Mardi Gras Artist project. …
“The project was conceived by Caroline Thomas, a float designer with Royal Artists. … Each house cost $15,000, paid for by donations and a lottery. DeWulf said the project has employed 45 artists and is on track to produce 21 projects.”
More here.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
The joy and celebration will continue. Laissez les bons temps rouler!🎉
Yes! Are you from there, Dorothy?
No, I’m a New England yankee, but I lived in Alabama for a year and got to go to Mardi Gras in person, one of my favorite events of the time in the south. Amazing, the people were wonderful, the food amazing, and I think I actually absorbed alcohol from the air….
LOL!
Wonderful idea. Maybe our neighborhood should get into the spirit too!
I know, but at $15,000 per house, it’s more likely to happen where Mardi Gras is the life blood of the community!
My goodness, that’s a downpayment on a car. The decorations were rather involved… I might just put up beads.
All across the country, people, communities, and organizations have had to find new ways to be creative during this pandemic. Bravo to New Orleans for finding a safe way to celebrate Mardi Gras in a bold, colorful way.
I’ve never been to Mardi Gras, but there’s something about the almost childlike abandon to play one reads about that people need right now.
You bet!
This is a great idea. It would be a shame to have all of the decorations just sit in the warehouse unused this year.
I keep thinking of other outdoor things we decorate for holidays — lights on houses at Xmas, pleasure boats on the 4th of July (eg, at the Jersey Shore), fake graveyards for Halloween. So why not Mardi Gras?
2021 – the year that Madri Gras is not meant to be … so we find ways to make the best of it!
Thanks for stopping by. Laurie Graves pointed me to your own lovely blog.
My pleasure. Thanks for letting me know you stopped by via Laurie. She and I connected last October. She’s a good one! My beach walks are meant to be relaxing and thought-provoking, if you think you may enjoy that sort of thing, I invite you to return.
I absolutely love this. I have a NOLA friend and neighbor who will be baking a king cake this weekend. I’ve sent this to her in hopes they might decorate their house in suburban Philadelphia. Don’t need $15K!
I saw that phrase “King Cake” in the story. What is it?
It’s a special kind of cake that has a tiny baby in it somewhere. The baby is sometimes porcelain, in this day and age plastic. Whoever gets the baby in their piece will have good luck in the coming year, or might have to host the next years’ Mardi Gras celebration. In my former church we would have our king cake on 1 Epiphany or close to it. The person who got the baby would be the King or Queen of our Mardi Gras talent show, held on Shrove Tuesday (day before Ash Wednesday). I was one of the producers of the talent show, and we took great pains to insure that the “right” (ie appropriately talented) person got the baby, after a couple of disasters. Actually, Nick (age 10) was quite wonderful at it, but was missing a lot of the double entendres and things to which we had become accustomed. That talent show lasted about 8 years and remains a major highlight in my adult life.
Oh, what a fantastic story. Loving it!