In part one of the post, I talked a little about why it is fun to be on Krewe of Endymion.

This is part of a series of posts describing what it is like to ride in the biggest parade at Mardi Gras.

The fun starts long before the parade!

Endymion is a Saturday parade. The actual parade starts around five pm, takes in a bunch of New Orleans, and finally hits the Superdome at around eleven pm. This IS Endymion to the hundreds of thousands of spectators who come to see this “super parade” in action. For Krewe of Endymion, it is a wonderful all day Saturday affair that starts at ten am and ends at three the next morning. The events of this wonderful day both before and after the parade itself make it my favorite day of the whole year.

For Krewe of Endymion the fun actually starts months before the parade with various activities, dinners, and balls that help plan the event and elect leaders.

Your dues are paid, beads and other “throws” are selected and purchased. If you are out of town, arrangements are made to stay in New Orleans for this wonderful party.

On the Saturday morning of the parade, we all meet at a good restaurant.

The last two years it has been Burboun House on Bourbon Street. The food there is fantastic and it is an open bar for us. Starting at ten am, we meet up with all of the riders of our float and have a great lunch, catch up with what is going on and laugh, curse, drink and share in some great guy comradery.

We usually roll out of the restaurant at noon with bellies and brains full of food and booze.

We walk out onto Bourbon street wearing our parade costumes. This is where Rock Star for a day actually begins. Walking Bourbon, costumed for Endymion, is like being royalty. Everyone along Bourbon wants a picture with us. Old men and women, great families, and oh yes, the ladies. It is very cool to get your picture taken with parade Krewe (lucky us). We meander down Bourbon causing commotion the whole way, wandering into establishments to stay boozed up lest the wonderful buzz of the day come to a premature end.

Next on the bus to our floats.

Here we get a last minute recap of rules that we have heard so many times before. It would not be Mardi Gras without this re-hashing of what not to do! A couple of the rules that get emphatically mentioned every year are; One, once the parade starts do not throw your first beads until the float captain does, thus signaling the beginning of the parade for your particular float. Two, and very, very important, do not at any time during the parade take your mask off! The charm and mystique of Endymion dictates that the riders are officially anonymous. Friends and family of riders can easily pick out their rider on the float though. After the rules recap, distribution of sandwiches, and other last minute details, we arrive at the parade site.

Instead of the bus dropping us all off at our floats, which are at City Park, we are dropped five or six blocks away.

This is one of my favorite parts. We walk in costume, beads in hand, mildly intoxicated through a wonderful neighborhood near the park. There are thousands of people lining the streets. Some have been there overnight to get a good spot just to watch Endymion Krewe walk to their floats. There is music and tents and barbecues. It is easy to find an encampment of folks that you don’t even know, sit and have a sandwich and beer with them. Everyone is so friendly. After partying on the walk with families, beer and fun, it is off to our floats. Just as you hit the edge of the park, you suddenly get a feel for how HUGE Endymion actually is. The floats line up from one end of the park to the other and wrap around back to the beginning. They are behomoths and very colorful. The whole park is a sea of riders, marching bands, mounted police and droves of spectators.

Once you find your float, nineteen B in our case, you climb aboard and start prepping your area.

The spot you stand in is approximately four feet by four feet. At the beginning of the ride most of this space is taken up with beads beads beads. If you stack them very carefully, you can make yourself a small foxhole to stand in. There are hooks at head level in your cubicle so that you can have some beads pegged and ready to throw. Even though there are many pegs, they will hold maybe one percent of your beads at a time. As you are making ready, families and friends of riders are constantly making their way to the floats to wish us well. We drink, smoke cigars hang out and wait until finally the word is out, the parade has started! Due to its large size and number of floats, it may be an hour before your float starts moving.

coming soon part three
see also Pics from Mardi Gras 2009