The Krewe of Pontchartrain, New Orleans Mardi Gras organization, parades down some of New Orleans’ most famous streets. The parade starts at 2:00 p.m. on the first Saturday of the official New Orleans Mardi Gras season.
The parade route is approximately 5 miles long and takes about 3.5 hours to complete. Besides the wide array of bands, horse units, dune buggies, motorcycles, and jesters, their parade has featured some of Mardi Gras’ most memorable floats, such as “Mr. Mudbug” (the world’s largest crawfish) and a giant fish dubbed “The Super Grouper”.
KREWE OF PONTCHARTRAIN ROUTE
KREWE OF PONTCHARTRAIN ROUTE
Each year the Krewe invites a celebrity to be the "Grand Marshal". Each Grand Marshal has their own specially designed cup just for the parade. Past Grand Marshals have included singer and musician Allan Toussaint, actor Red Buttons, baseball star (New Orleans’ own) Will Clark, TV Star Bart Simpson, singer Irma Thomas, Sports Commentator Jim Henderson, and last but not least, entertainer extraordinaire Becky Allen.
About the DVD The first Mardi Gras in America was celebrated in Mobile, Alabama in 1703. In 2007, it is still racially segregated. Filmmaker Margaret Brown (Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt), herself a daughter of Mobile, escorts us into the parallel hearts of the city s two carnivals. With unprecedented access, she traces the exotic world of secret mystic societies and centuries-old traditions and pageantry; diamond-encrusted crowns, voluminous, hand-sewn gowns, surreal masks and enormous paper mache floats. Against this opulent backdrop, she uncovers a tangled web of historical violence and power dynamics, elusive forces that keep this hallowed tradition organized along enduring color lines.
