Let the people make the Carnival rules

All the very important people who we are required to trust have all of our best interests at heart had a closed door meeting last Thursday night to start talking about how they're going to fix Mardi Gras. As far as we on the other side of that closed door know, nothing was decided there but "nothing is off the table."

No specific proposals were put forward. They will be worked out by a subcommittee of the Mayor’s Mardi Gras Advisory Committee over the next two months.

Specific recommendations for next year are expected by May 1.

“Nothing is off the table. We want to review every recommendation that the Carnival krewes and our public safety team have to offer,” Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said at a short press briefing after the meeting. “We have received so many ideas already, but I want to review everything and determine what is the best path forward.”

"We have received so many ideas already." Unfortunately, according to this WWLTV report, it looks like most of those ideas are terrible.

A number of ideas are being talked about, including: increasing the number of barricades used, having security walk with the floats to dissuade over-aggressive spectators, changing the routes to only include the largest of streets, having all krewes take exactly the same routes and placing some type of barrier that would prevent people on the streets from getting in between the multi-part floats.

This is all so shockingly out of touch with the more open and public discussions taking place around town and on social media over the past week. There is a broad consensus against barricades, for example.  In fact most people seem to be asking for measures that offer greater crowd flexibility. They want to see continued progress in cutting back the territorial use of ladders and tents to wall of space. Many are asking for less obstructive routes in general with easier and safer ways for people to cross the street if they are attending the parade or just passing through on their way to work.

But the number one thing you hear from most New Orleanians is they would like to see more diverse parade routes and more parades dispersed among various neighborhoods in order to reduce the intensity of nightly megacrowds from all over the city and beyond gathering in one space.  This isn't a radical idea. It is a call to return the celebration to its local roots after a period when it has tilted a little too far in the direction of becoming a tourism-first event.  This isn't to say it needs to be exclusively one or the other of those things.  It's just that a lot of people feel the balance is off.

One doesn't have to go back very far to remember when the footprint of Mardi Gras better reflected its deep ties to the city's diverse communities.

We finally altered the parade routes by addition instead of subtraction! I'm going to have to update the map for Nefertiti, but we're still a long way from Mardi Gras 1977: pic.twitter.com/V0SP2effBB

— Jon Frosch (@jonfrosch) February 3, 2020

As the tweet accompanying that map points out, in fact, the Krewe of Nefertiti made a deliberate push in the local direction this year.  By all accounts, this was a great success.  Why would we want to abandon it now? Often locals trying to explain the breadth and complexity of Carnival to first-timers will emphasize the diversity of experiences. "There are many different kinds of Mardi Gras" or something like that.   Why, then, should there be only one parade route?

Clearly there need to be more perspectives in the discussion than those of city officials and krewe captains. The question of whether or not to barricade the route is much bigger than just how it affects Zulu's ability to distribute coconuts. But it doesn't seem from this as though they can imagine much beyond that.

Bacchus Captain Clark Brennan said he would like to see barricades all along the route, though he realizes it will be expensive and could affect some krewe’s traditions.

“Let’s make some good judgement decisions and think about the decisions we make, because they do have a ripple effect,” Brennan said.

Elroy James, president of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure club, noted that his krewe would be affected if barricades line the route.

“Sometimes barricades create issues with respect to the coconuts,” he said. “We can't throw (them).”

Not every krewe captain will share this perspective, probably. Brennan, in particular, appears to be an extreme example of a plutocrat's view of Carnival as a tourism driven spectacle. But, again, whatever decisions end up being made need to take into account the views of the entire community and not just those of a select few the Mayor has designated as "stakeholders."

The police are in that room too. It will be interesting to learn if they have any thoughts on the barricade issue.  NOPD are proud of their reputation for crowd control proficiency developed over many years of Mardi Gras experience. The techniques they're so famous for, though, are based more in flexibility and discretion than they are in rigidly penning people in behind barriers.  It's a task that requires  patience and soft skills and, most importantly, a lot of overtime pay.



Unfortunately we've seen a retreat from these principles over the years as NOPD leadership's incentive has been to do everything in its power to cut back on personnel costs. Pretty much every bad decision having to do with parade routes and schedules over the past 20 or 30 years has come at the request of NOPD brass claiming it just doesn't have the "manpower" to do the job.  In the post-9/11 era we have added layer after layer of "anti-terrorism" paranoia as well and so now federal security state agencies have a role in the planning process too.  At the beginning of this season it was reported that Mardi Gras 2020 had been designated a DHS "Level 2 event." Whatever that means isn't exactly clear. But we do know the overriding objective of NOPD and DHS leadership for a long time now has been to get parades over with and crowds dispersed as quickly as possible. Anecdotal reports from dance teams and marching clubs suggest that police were driving them harder than ever this year.  During the Rex Ball, Shaun Ferguson bragged to Errol Laborde that "our times this year were faster than last year."

But Carnival isn't just about getting the parade through on time.  Often, it's not really even about the parade itself so much as it is just about getting people out in the streets.  People go out to see the parade, sure, but what they're going out to experience is the temporary disruption of order. The quiet of a neighborhood, or the regular business of a city street is overturned by a sprawling party.



There random entrepreneurial improvisations.



Spontaneous art.



Lots and lots of debris





Various absurdities occur in the crowd that build as the parade passes until



It begins to dial back and the crowd slowly disperses in time for the street cleaners to put everything back in order.



This is also a healthy fit of abandon.  While we act out in the streets, we also retain the basis of the social contract. New Orleanians are especially good knowing how to do this. The whole thing is a bit of an illusion. But it's a cathartic illusion. And one that needs space to breathe.  In order for the illusion to work, it requires more of the old style NOPD tactics of low and slow crowd control.  Clamping down on it with rigid barricades and time restrictions violates the illusion and it ultimately causes Carnival to fail.


We need a free, fun and open Carnival culture. And we can have that if we remember that every one of us is a "culture bearer."As such, we should all have a say in how the city's signature celebration is managed in the future.  Mainly our purpose in this discussion should be reasserting the fact that Carnival is, as the Arthur Hardy Guide puts it, "a party the city throws for itself" and not just some big tourist-driven cash-in. But accomplishing that likely extends to reclaiming everyday life in New Orleans as well.  Which means we should have a lot to talk about over the coming months.

I'm really not sure the people in charge get it. 

Cantrell also called for officials to look at the consumption of alcohol during Carnival celebrations and suggested the need for a public awareness campaign to promote safety.