Mardi Gras Indians at Jazz Fest
As recently as the early 1980s, only a handful of tribes appeared at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. In 2022, more than 40 performed on stage and paraded through the Fair Grounds, giving attendees from around the world a taste of one of the city’s most end…
Carnival culture at Jazz Fest 2024
Jazz Fest has consistently showcased aspects of Carnival, notably performances and parades by New Orleans’s iconic Mardi Gras Indian tribes. But there’s much else of…
Baby Dolls
The Baby Dolls of New Orleans are renowned not only for their dancing and attire but their commitment to preserving an iconic tradition that has been uplifting and empowering women for more than a century.
North Side Skull and Bone Gang
These maskers, dressed as skeletons and wielding scary-looking spears and large bones, wake up the Tremé neighborhood on Mardi Gras morning with a warning: Get…
Black Masking Indians
Once shrouded in secrecy, with little interest in sharing their traditions with the outside world, Black Masking Indians, also known as Mardi Gras Indians, have…
Andrew Justin
MardiGrasTraditions.com