As I said at the start, “according to friends here in New Orleans, you don’t go to Mardi Gras, Mardi Gras comes to you”. I’m ecstatic that it came, but since I’m ready for a little extra sleep, some good food and doing a little work, I’m also a wee bit happy it’s gone. Until next year, of course.
Blur, Krewe of Bacchus parade, New Orleans, LA
Mardi Gras was a blur.
But a great blur. My best Mardi Gras ever, to be honest.
Why? Compared to my past experiences, where I basically re-created a sliver of Mardi Gras five times, my first as a local was a rich, varied experience.
I bounced from watching parades in Uptown and Downtown, from the streets to the ladders to balconies. I enjoyed good times with friends, the My Mardi Gras Experience crew and thousands of other strangers chanting “Who Dat” and cheering for beads. I asked tons of questions from friends new and old, and maybe even answered a couple questions. I rode in a parade and went to a ball. I learned new tricks about catching beads and coconuts from the kids in the ladders. I ran into friends on the streets on their way from party to party. I enjoyed the satirical, irreverent, playful, outlandish and sublime moments of Mardi Gras with equal aplomb. I enjoyed wandering the streets and getting to explore the edges of Mardi Gras, the parts that aren’t apparent to the tourist eye.
It’s what I wanted, and luckily I had a great partner-in-crime and friends new and old to help make it happen.
Part of what made this Mardi Gras meaningful to me was the opportunity to participate in Tom Martin‘s My Mardi Gras Experience. As Sloane explains, My Mardi Gras Experience is…
… A site dedicated to rebranding Mardi Gras as the family-filled event it is. The creation of Tom Martin and the Zehnder Communications team, last year it was a stream on Twitter spreading the joy of Mardi Gras to people everywhere. This year it’s bloggers from around the country brought into town to blog, take photos and videos and capture all that is Mardi Gras courtesy of Tabasco and hotels provided by Sheraton.
Getting the chance to meet and talk to the other featured bloggers was a great experience, but it was also interesting for me to approach Mardi Gras with a little different goal, with a different spirit and attitude towards exploring the different aspects, to asking more questions, to creating content moments and “shareable experiences”, sharing photos and stories about some of the behind-the-scenes parts I was lucky enough to see, to try and capture and share a bit of the family-oriented side of Mardi Gras that a lot of the world has no idea exists.
And that’s the potential here: to see how social media can help change perceptions, by telling the rest of the story using real people, real experiences, real stories.
Therefore, I’ll ask: if you followed My Mardi Gras Experience or @MyMardiGras, could you spare 3 minutes and complete a survey about the project? We appreciate your time.
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Recapping Mardi Gras:
My posts on My Mardi Gras Experience:
- My First Mardi Gras as a Local
- Krewe of Sparta and Krewe of Pygmalion
- Krewe of Carrolton and Krewe of King Arthur
- Getting ready to ride in a Mardi Gras parade
- My first ride in a Mardi Gras parade
- Krewe of Iris and Krewe of Trucks
- The Blur, and a Burst of Joy
- Truck Parades
Additional posts here on Taylor Davidson:
- I’m ready for Mardi Gras. I think.
- It’s time for Mardi Gras! (I’ll be back when it’s over.)
- If you’re in New Orleans, say hi to me at the Krewe of Druids parade today.
- My first ride in a Mardi Gras parade (reblogged from My Mardi Gras Experience)
- Below our Gaze, Mardi Gras
Photos!
- All of my photos from Mardi Gras, in a collection on Flickr.
Selected blog posts from other My Mardi Gras Contributors:
- Tom Martin, Is this a Content Moment?
- Tom Martin, Can Reality Change Perception?
- Shannon Lane, Things I Learned from Peter Shankman.
- Sloane Berrent, My First Mardi Gras.
- Peter Shankman, Interview with the Owner of the SICKEST house at Mardi Gras!
Related media:
- AdAge, Let the Chaste Times Roll at Mardi Gras.
- NOLAlicious, NOLAlicious Newsletter #005, Lagniappe pick of the week.
- NPR on APM Marketplace, Changing the perception of Mardi Gras.
