Halloween on Frenchmen Street in 2020 may (or may not be) a good indicator of what Mardi Gras season will look like in 2021. While visitors to New Orleans appeared to flock in droves to the slimy sidewalks of Bourbon Street, locals cautiously approached Frenchmen, which in past years has seen explosions of activity on Halloween night.
Parked buses didn’t host party gatherings but rather blasted music such as Oingo Boingo’s “Dead Man’s Party” for revelers to dance socially distanced in the streets. A brass band played for tips across the street from d.b.a., where at 1 p.m. Tuba Skinny had live-streamed from StageIt. A masked up bartender was doling out Banana Zombie drinks while Tom Thayer, d.b.a. owner, was prepping for the 10 p.m. StageIt live stream of Quintron and Miss Pussycat. The duo were celebrating the release of their new album Goblin Alert and performing their puppetry.
Costumed passersby were mostly masked up trying their best to dance away the woes of 2020 and to enjoy the holiday under a red full moon, especially after the week had wreaked havoc citywide via Hurricane Zeta. To add to the holiday chaos, a police officer was gunned down in the French Quarter Friday evening, but those hellbent on celebrating still headed to Frenchmen.
Small groups perched up on residential porches and stoops to catch the sounds and sights. Tubas pumped above all the music filling residents with joy who were glad to hear the return of music to the streets. Although the city is in Phase 3.2 and live music is not permitted indoors, it appears to be having a resurgence in the Quarter and the Marigny neighborhoods and a few others.
“I don’t know what I was expecting,” said Trey Guillory, who has lived in New Orleans most of his life. To be safe, he was completely dressed in a masked up Storm Trooper outfit in the muggy weather.
“My friends had a very small—nine people—outdoor party on their driveway [near Frenchmen], so we saw some costumed people walked by. Definitely the lightest crowds I’ve seen in years, although it’s still pretty freaky to see big groups walking around unmasked,” said Cate Root, a Quarter resident who made her way to the Marigny. “Hard to say what Mardi Gras will be like. Some krewes have already cancelled, and a decent number of people still haven’t left their houses for any kind of social outing or indoor appointment since March.”
The Austin, TX City Council recently approved a $5 million relief package that would strictly assist live music venues (the other $10 million in relief packages were allocated to child care businesses and “iconic” arts/culture organizations). On Sunday, November 1, it was announced that NOLA natives Big Freedia and Tank and the Bangas would be performing live in Austin on November 12 while live performances remain to be posted in the New Orleans area.
Popular costumes included medieval Bubonic plague masks and the quintessential Karen uniform of 2020, although some Karens may have just been out-of-town bachelorettes stumbling towards Bourbon Street in search of a good time.
