Finally, I speculate on the future of metropolitan life, race and class relations, and tourism in the post-Katrina years. 2 Processions and Parades Carnival Krewes and the Development of Modern Mardi Gras It was the last day of carnival. . There was a grand procession parading in the streets, almost everyone dressed in the most grotesque attire, troops of them on horseback, some in open carriages, with bands of music, and in a variety of costumes. . All wore masks, and here and there in the crowd, or stationed in a balcony above, we saw persons armed with bags of flour, which they showered down copiously on any one who seemed particularly proud of his attire.

Costume balls and street parades had long been a cultural fixture of Carnival. 28 First, the members of Comus established an exclusive social club to plan and stage Carnival parades and balls. Shortly after their first Carnival parade, they created the Pickwick Club, a private and secretive club that would be the formal organization for Comus. Later Carnival organizations adopted this formula of a private club and henceforth called themselves “krewes,” thereby creating a new tradition of Carnival organizations using mythological namesake and iconology.

By linking the Carnival krewe with an exclusive men’s social club, the leaders of Comus, Momus, Rex, and Proteus were able to launch a new formula for managing Carnival while providing a cultural avenue for advancing their own class interests. Drawn from the city’s most elite gentlemen’s clubs and the wealthiest families, the founders and members of the old-line krewes excluded all others who could not afford to socialize with them. As a result, Carnival krewes and their elite social clubs provided high-status “niches” for an otherwise fragmented or disorganized social elite, helping to forge a class unity among the wealthy and affluent.