PapaMarshall

Day 2b – 2/18 – Mardi Gras World

Mardi Gras World is a warehouse down by the river that is the base of operations (and storage) for the family business that builds the floats (and hosts many of the parties) for Krewes that put on parades during Carnival season.

The basics: Carnival season runs from Epiphany to Fat Tuesday.  We generally think of Mardi Gras (French for “Fat Tuesday”) as the last day of Carnival season (which, in fact, it is) but it’s important to remember that there were 71 parades during Carnival season this year.

A Krewe is like a fraternity.  People pay to join and pay dues to belong.  The Krewe has two basic functions: A parade and a ball.  Each Krewe produces a parade that has a minimum of 14 floats and 7 marching bands and then throws a ball to celebrate. Many Krewes are smaller organizations with modest events.  Then there are the “Super Krewes” that spend tens of thousands of dollars on their events. The biggest of these begin working on their parade themes and floats 18 months in advance.

The Kern family (who own Mardi Gras World) keep an inventory of “props” (figures) that have been used in the past.  Many of these are repainted, refurbished and reused in future floats. Other props are developed from scratch for a specific parade.

Prop from a “big fish” themed parade

 

Props from a Wizard of Oz theme

 

Underdog and the Super Bowl are represented (and the big turtle that is about to bite Cheryl’s arm off)

 

Some props are fanciful depictions of myth.

 

Our tour guide explaining how props are constructed

 

This sphinx (for next year’s Krewe of Orpheus parade) is being carved from Styrofoam.

 

These two busts are important. The Creature from the Black Lagoon on the right is merely interesting.

 

Those two busts are the basis for every other head in the collection.
Figures waiting for touch-up in the paint shop

 

Another new prop for the Orpheus parade in the paint shop. You can’t see it from this angle but the beast actually has 5 legs.

 

Completed work in the paint shop. You can tell that this prop is made of styrofoam (covered with paper mâché) because it is mounted on a wooden base.

 

These two props are fiberglass. You can tell because they are mounted on metal bases to handle their extra weight.

 

Another fiber glass prop

 

This is the largest prop in the collection. King Kong was specially designed to be a “non-float float” to get around the “maximum number of floats” limit. Because there was nobody riding on him throwing stuff (beads) parade watchers developed a tradition of throwing beads to him.

 

These floats are ready to be stripped from last week’s parade and prepared for next year.

 

Finally…

The newest tool for figure creation is a computer-driven mill

The mill is on the right.  The (fiber glass) cow on the left is ready to be shipped to a billboard near you.  This company also runs a “corporate business.” They make the cows for the Chick-fil-a billboards as well as figures for Disney and major Las Vegas hotels.

That’s our trip to Mardi Gras World.  Amazing!

 

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