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Mardi Gras 9 Ways: Parades, Cajun Music, And Courirs Across Louisiana

With its ingenious floats, its creative costumes, and its exuberant atmosphere, the Krewe de Canailles parade in Lafayette, Louisiana is everything you’ve come to expect from Mardi Gras. But it’s even better, because it’s one thing more: sustainable.

The Krewe de Canailles is a walking parade where marchers hand-made their costumes and their floats. Plastic beads are banned, and instead participants create their own “throws” to give away along the parade route. Anything goes, as long as it’s environmentally friendly! And because floats are powered by humans and not cars, there are no barricades between marchers and those watching and partying on the sidelines.

The fact that everything is hand-made and sustainable brings out a lot of ingenuity, and the Krewe de Canailles parade is a blast. No wonder: “canaille” is Cajun French for shrewd, mischievous, a trickster.

Established in 2018, the Krewe de Canailles parade kicks off the Mardi Gras season in Lafayette, rolling through downtown two Fridays before Fat Tuesday. This year’s theme is “Playhouse.”

Why should humans have all the fun on Fat Tuesday? In Shreveport, pets have their own Mardi Gras parade, marching as part of the Krewe of Barkus and Meoux.

The Krewe operates on a pretty universal principle: let’s see some cute pets wearing crazy costumes. It’s a family-friendly event as pets march, kids cheer, and everyone gets to enjoy all the cuteness.

The best-costumed pets win prizes, and the entire event raises money for Northwest Louisiana animal rescues. In fact, the Krewe has expanded their scope beyond Mardi Gras and are now raising money for animals in Shreveport year-round.

In Cajun tradition, Mardi Gras consisted not of a parade but of a communal gumbo. In a custom going back to begging rituals in Medieval France, the ingredients for said gumbo are collected by a group of masked riders traveling around on horseback. In rural Eunice, Louisiana, this is still exactly how Mardi Gras is celebrated.

Fat Tuesday in Eunice starts at 6 in the morning, with thousands of revelers gathering in handmade costumes that conceal their identities and parody authority figures. (Unlike many rural runs, both men and women are allowed to run Mardi Gras in Eunice.) A capitaine, the person in charge, explains the rules of the courir. Then the group rides on horses and on flatbeds through the countryside, going house to house to ask for gumbo ingredients.

One of the more thrilling parts of the courir is the chicken run. The capitaine releases a chicken, and revelers run after it. When caught, it’s added to the gumbo. The day ends with a parade through town and a fais do-do (a Cajun dance party) at Lakeview Park and Beach.

The Krewe of Janus in the twin cities of Monroe and West Monroe isn’t just known for its family-friendly atmosphere. It’s also the oldest Mardi Gras Krewe in Northeast Louisiana, established forty years ago.

With its history comes popularity. The 3.8 mile parade, starting in West Monroe and ending across the Ouachita River in Monroe, drew a crowd of over 200,000 people in 2022. It includes floats, marchers, and high school bands. It has been named one of the top 20 tourism events in the South for multiple years.

This year’s Krewe of Janus Mardi Gras Parade is called “Janus Flies To The Moon” and is space-travel themed. It rolls a couple weeks before Fat Tuesday, on Saturday February 15th. The day also includes a Children’s Parade and a Pet Parade.

The historic city of Natchitoches (pronounced “Nack-a-tish”) has multiple Mardi Gras celebrations, the cutest of which is the family-friendly Krewe of Waguns pet parade. Families in floats wear costumes, and so do the pets: tiaras atop puppy heads and tutus around confused dogs abound. In years past, animal mascots including McGruff the Crime Dog and the D.A.R.E. Lion have ended the parade with a dance-off. A Mardi Gras King and Queen are chosen from the real pets, and prizes are awarded for best costume and best float. The entire thing raises money for the local animal welfare group FAUNA (Friends All United for Natchitoches Animals), and allows the group to introduce some animals who are looking for a forever home.

While in Natchitoches, you can also visit its downtown, which lies in a National Historic Landmark District -- one of only three in all of Louisiana. The 33-block area is known for its architecture and brick-lined streets, with Creole townhouses, wrought iron, and live oak trees. It’s full of bed and breakfasts, boasts galleries and a museum, and has plenty of options for shopping and dining (don’t miss the meat pies). The town is the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase, dating all the way back to 1714, and as such has a culture influenced by French, Spanish, Creole, American Indian, and African communities.

Cane River Lake (a 36-mile long lake that really seems like more of a river) winds through downtown. It flows right past one of the city’s best-known buildings: the home from the beloved movie Steel Magnolias. Just a five minute walk further south lies the Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site, a replica of the original fort built by the French in 1732 as an outpost for trade with Spanish-controlled Mexico.

Like many small towns in Acadiana, Iota celebrates Fat Tuesday with a traditional Courir de Mardi Gras. What sets this town apart is its Folklife Festival, which features folk art displays, live music, and craft sales.

Cajun heritage is embraced in Iota, one of the few places that has run a Courir without a break in continuity ever since French and Acadian settlers brought the ritual to southwest Louisiana. Runners in this final bit of celebration before the beginning of Lent are required to wear traditional costumes and masks, with a cone-shaped hat called a “capuchon.” The only runners who show their faces are the capitaine and the co-captains, who maintain order and who act as a liaison between the public and those running the Mardi Gras.

While the courir is rounding up ingredients for a gumbo, the Folklife Festival is taking place back in downtown Iota. Cajun and Zydeco musicians perform on a stage while vendors sell traditional hand-made crafts like cypress driftwood carvings, sun bonnets, and handmade Cajun accordions. In the afternoon, the Mardi Gras runners come into town with their chickens.

From Iota take a drive to the bayou, where you can enrich your Mardi Gras celebrations with a swamp tour. Just outside of Houma, a town with the second-largest Mardi Gras celebration in Louisiana, you can go on an adventure with A Cajun Man’s Swamp Tour. The tour leads you through cypress swamp and wetlands filled with wildcats, black bears, and alligators, all pointed out by the eponymous Cajun man. Along the way, he’ll share Bayou history and legends.

Recharge from all your Mardi Gras revelry with a float through the bayou, listening to Cajun music and drifting under tendrils of Spanish moss. Not all the animals in the swamp are scary: if you keep an eye open it’s likely you’ll see a bald eagle. You may also see a great blue heron, an owl, or a red-tailed hawk.

If you’re hungry, you can even make a reservation for authentic Cajun food before or after the swamp tour.

Fred’s Lounge in Mamou is famous far and wide for its Saturday morning Cajun music dances. In fact, the dancing is so integral to Fred’s identity that 51 weeks of the year, that’s the only time the bar is open: Saturday mornings. The bar opens at 8 am. Starting at 9:15, Cajun music plays, people dance, and the whole thing is broadcast as a radio show on KVPI (1050AM).

And come Mardi Gras, the dancing keeps on going. Though Fred’s hours vary each year and are announced in advance, the bar generally opens up for the weekend before Fat Tuesday, and is open on Lundigras (the day before Mardi Gras) and on Mardi Gras itself.

There’s much to celebrate. The town of Mamou has a traditional Courir de Mardi Gras, one that introduced much of the world to the concept when Anthony Bourdain participated in an episode of Parts Unknown. Mardi Gras celebrations fell off during the Great Depression and World War II, and cultural assimilation in Arcadiana meant it might never return. But as the story goes, it was at Fred’s Lounge that owner Fred Tate and two friends decided to bring the courir back to Mamou.

On Mardi Gras you’ll find Fred’s Lounge full of people dancing to the fiddle and accordion. Partying goes on into the night, but ends at midnight, as Fat Tuesday becomes Ash Wednesday. It’s time to fast, and to start waiting for next year’s Mardi Gras.

With all its famous coastline and waterways, someone in Louisiana had to have a Mardi Gras boat parade. Luckily, there’s one in Slidell. The town is just a 30 minute drive across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans' French Quarter, but the vibe is much more laid back and personal. And the Krewe of Bilge boat parade is a Mardi Gras celebration you’ll never forget.

Founded in 1978 by residents of a subdivision called Eden Isles, the Krewe of Bilge now consists of over 400 members who decorate their boats, put on costumes, and float up and down canals in a five-hour Mardi Gras parade. Onlookers can cheer from bars, restaurants, and businesses along the route, where they can catch cups, beads, and other trinkets thrown from the floating floats.

This year’s Krewe of Bilge parade sets sail Friday, Feb 15 at noon starting at Phil’s Marina Cafe. Its theme is “America the Beautiful.”