Because of COVID, the parades are all cancelled this year. But because this is New Orleans, the celebrations were going to continue, which brings me (finally, I know) to the subject of this blog post: house floats.

Instead of having moveable parades, someone had the idea to make the entire city one large COVID-friendly parade that people could view at their leisure. It was a fantastic idea and the entire city embraced it. People began brainstorming and prepping in December, with decorations meant to go up on January 6th—Epiphany— the official start of Mardi Gras season. As January continued, however, more and more houses began popping up, inspired by pop culture, politics, history, nature, and above all, neighborly competition. Some decorations were created by local artists who otherwise would have been struggling after a year without festivals, others by small budgets and a DIY spirit.