2024_white

2024 Parade

2024_white

2024 Parade

2024_white

2024 Parade

2024_white

2024 Parade

Welcome to the 24th Krewe of Muses Parade!

Muses was founded in the year 2000 by Captain Staci Rosenberg. She set out to create a civic-minded organization to celebrate the traditions of Mardi Gras, the strength of womanhood and the spirit of New Orleans. She had hopes she could convince 349 more women to join her in this new carnival adventure. Staci had no idea that within a few years the Krewe of Muses would boast 1500 members with over 1100 riding, an entire fleet of floats including some of the most beautiful and beloved floats in Mardi Gras. She had no idea that the creation of Muses was launching a new era of women in Mardi Gras.

Since 2000 the Krewe has lived up to its goals, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars through the Muses Foundation to support non-profits in the Greater New Orleans area and beyond. The Krewe has worked with public and charter schools since 2001 on the annual cup design contest. The designer of this year’s Muses cup, that will be thrown to crowd by all the Muses riding tonight is Roya Brinkman of NOCCA, the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, and Ben Franklin High School.

Here comes the parade!

  • WDSU – Parade Tracker
  • WWL – Parade Tracker
  • Low Flyers – Bulletins
  • Sky-Tracker – Muses Balloon
  • Horse Unit – Lady Godiva Riding Club
  • Sky Tracker Support Truck and Trailer
  • Marching Unit – Camel Toe Lady Steppers (Celebrating their 20th-anniversary march with the Krewe of Muses)
  • Band – St Augustine High School - Lead by Band Director Mr. Ray Johnson
float 1 2020 goddessy

Float 1 – The Goddessey

Carnival’s most beautiful float is on a journey to inspire. Widely known as patrons of the arts, Muses are truly patrons of knowledge. And knowledge does not exist without illumination. This float is all about shining a light on the fields inspired by the Muses - the nine Muses are depicted in silhouette because the focus is not on them but on their attributes. Lighting the way are hanging peaches, representing the immortality of art.

  • Band – L.B. Landry High School Marching Band – Lead by Band Director Mr. Wilbert Rawlins
Margaret Orr

Float 2 – Shoe: Honorary Muse 2024 – Margaret Orr

Leading our procession in high style is Honorary Muse 2024, Margaret Orr.

New Orleans-born Orr is New Orleans most beloved Meteorologist. She began her television career at 25 and today, at 70, says her greatest goal is to keep people safe when the weather is bad. The women of the Muses have dubbed her “Margaret Orracle.”

  • Flambeaux (30)
  • Band – John F. Kennedy High School – Lead by Band Director Mr Keith Thomas

Float 3 – Mt. Olympus Brass Band (Coolbone)

  • Band – Edna Karr High School Marching Band – Lead by Mr. Christopher Herrero

Float 4 – Happy Are They Whom The Muses Love

The Muses Old Officers Float (AKA the MOOF) has earned a coveted spot in the parade, and our hearts. No, the officers are not old, the float is. It is our oldest, which was ridden by the officers before the Goddessey was built.

  • Band – McDonogh 35 Senior High School Marching Band – Lead by Mr. Felix Lewis
Vivant les Bon

Float 5 – The Bathing Muses

Here come the bathing Muses, bubbling over with excitement and good clean fun.

  • Sky-Tracker – Bubble Machine
  • Rolling Group – Vivant les Bon
  • Band – Martin Luther King High School – Lead by Mr. Charles Brooks
muses_021623_RHR-198

Float 6 – Mama Duck & Duckies

Make way for Muses’ Mama Duck and Baby Duckies. The riders on this float have their own special throw not found on any other float! Quack loudly, “Throw me something sister!”

  • Sky-Tracker
  • Band – George W. Carver Charter School – Lead by Eric French

Float 7 – Molly Marines Chapter LA-1, Women Marines Association

  • Molly Marines
  • Band – St. Katharine Drexel – Lead by Morgan Stewart
title_a_mock up
title b mock up

Float 8 – Title Floats – Museapalooza 2024

Have you heard? The influencers are all abuzz about it. It may the biggest festival ever! Well, more like dozens of festivals, all jamboreed together. It’s Museapalooza! A festival of festivals.

Down here we love our festivals, and we celebrate just about everything. And so does Museapalooza. A fete of the good, the bad, the shameful and the fantastic happenings that we see every year – a Muses nod to our festive way of life.

  • Band – Booker T. Washington School – Lead by Mr. Charles Jackson
roachella

Float 9 – Roachella

It’s the hottest festival around and, down here, it happens as soon as the lights go out. It’s Roachella! Yeah, that well known festival says they’ll see you in the desert, but we’ll see you in the dessert, and under the kitchen sink!

  • Band – Abramson Sci Academy – Lead by Johnnie Van Burren
Unfaire

Float 10 – Renaissance UnFaire

Welcome back to ye olden times in the Village of Alldark. Where men rule the state, burn the books, and tell the women what to do. The lassies are deprived of ye olde education, ye olde equal wages and ye olde reproductive rights. Serve your man up a turkey leg and get in line. Be careful, lassie, or ye shall be held in ye olde pillory wearing the sign: “Spoketh Her Mind.”

  • Band – Fredrick A Douglass High School – Lead by Jordan Harper
EXNXSXW

Float 11 – East by North by South by Westbank

Everyone has heard of South by Southwest in Austin, TX. Well, we are directionally challenged here New Orleans. We’ve got the North Shore and the South Shore and the East and, who knows what direction you even go in to get to the Westbank. No one is really sure! So our festival is East by North by South by Westbank.

  • Band – Livingston Collegiate Academy – Lead by Mr. Dedric Jones
Buy-You-Boogaloo

Float 12 – Buy-You Boogaloo

Who’s that paddling down the bayou in their boat? Looks like a few justices, and their boat may have an ethics leak. They are headed to the Buy-You Boogaloo! It’s a Pay to Play Production and the lineup is amazing: The Supremes, Counting Harland Crows, The Horatio Alger Billionaire Boys Choir, Abuse of Power Station, Father John Roberts, Amy Coney Grant and Ginny Thomas & the 6th. I hear tickets are pricey. Who will be buying yours?

  • Band – Eleanor McMain High School – Lead by Mr Herman Halphen
Bongaroo

Float 13 – Bongaroo

What’s that smell? This show may be several states away, but I can smell it from here. It must be Bongaroo. Take a deep breath, because this is splendor in the grass.

  • Band – Walter L. Cohen High School – Lead by Tenell Moore
Jazz Age Fest

Float 14 – Jazz Age Fest

We’ve been going to that certain festival since we were so young!  Now we spend most of our time at the AARP tent. I guess you’re only as old as you feel on day 8!

  • Band – Alice Harte (Heart Beat of the South) – Lead by Christopher Arce
Rich Boy Fest

Float 15 – Rich Boy Fest

You’ve heard of the PoBoy Fest, well this the Rich Boy Fest! Our own John Georges is honorary chairman this year, with special nepo guests Hunter Biden and Jared Kushner. If you qualify, be sure to get your Nepo Baby Passes and use the Legacy Admissions Entrance!

  • Band – Kipp Leadership – Lead by Shannon Haynes
  • Marching Unit – High Steppers and ISL Circus Arts Kids
That Guy

Float 16 – Every Festival Has One

 

You know – that guy? He has probably had too much to drink or is experimenting with ‘shrooms. He’s dancing all by himself, with or without music, and is definitely blocking your view! Every festival has a guy just like him.

  • Band – Young Audiences Charter School – Lead by Trey Varnado
Fails of the Cocktail

Float 17 – Fails of the Cocktail

If you liked Tales of the Cocktail, you’ll love Fails of the Cocktail! It’s a festival of all our most egregious drunken miscalculations. Drunk-dialed your ex 32 times last night? Fail. Got a tattoo of a griffon? Epic fail. Don’t worry. We’ve all been to this fest.

  • Rolling unit – Laissez Boys
infestival

Float 18 – Infestival

When you see the big yellow and red tent, you know it’s the season. It’s time for an Infestival, and it’s a gas, gas, gas! Those little guys are partying in your house and will keep on partying until they drop.

  • Marching Unit – Big Easy Roller Girls
Binge Fest

Float 19 – Binge Fest

Let’s face it, we’re here for the food. Some festivals are all about the music. But at Jazz Fest, it’s a toss-up. We come hungry. We leave full. We rebel when we can’t get our crawfish bread. And, yes, it’s BYOF (Bring your own foil!).

  • Marching Unit – Pussyfooters
Port_Elite

Float 20 – Port Elite

These days you can get general admission or Grandstand or Super Luxury Front Row seating, but we know what it all comes down to is “how good are the facilities?” “Do I get a crowd pleaser?” “Will there be a line?” “Is there any paper left?” If you are a VIPee or just one of the regular folks, bottom line: where you sit matters!

  • Marching Unit – Dead Rock Stars
Selfie

Float 21 – Me, My Selfie & I

Thanks to the influencers, every festival starts with the obligatory selfie. They all have the fancy arched entrance or the giant spaceman or the 6-story tall butterfly to be the backdrop of thousands of selfies. And ironically it won’t be a music stage. So Museapalooza presents Me, My Selfie & I – a float for YOUR selfie! It’s decorated with mirrored phones so you can take a selfie of yourself taking a selfie in front of the selfie float. Today’s philosophy lesson: I post, therefore I am.

  • Marching Unit – Rolling Elvi
Swamp Fest

Float 22 – Swamp Fest

The new speaker has risen from the Swamp and has called the Fest to order. But it appears that the drain is completely clogged…despite some kidney punching, mudslinging, and a few fellas takin’ it to the matt. Nothing much gets accomplished in this swamp.

  • StarsMarching Unit – Bearded Oysters
whine & mood experience

Float 23 – New Orleans Mood & Whine Experience

It’s sponsored by the most vocal complainers on Nextdoor and those folks who never vote but gripe about city management. They are all lining up for the New Orleans Whine & Mood Experience where the hypocrisy is flowing!  Quotes bubbling up, “I can’t stand people running red lights in this town!” Same neighbor, three months later, ”I’m not paying a red-light camera ticket!” Or, “The potholes are so bad I can’t drive down my street!” Then, six months later, ”The construction is so awful, I can’t drive down my street!” Grab a glass! The whine is flowing!

  • Marching Unit – Krewe da Bhan Gras
rotten_tomato

Float 24 – Rotten Tomato Fest

You may have been to the Creole Tomato Festival, but these tomatoes aren’t so fresh, and they are flying – at all the worst movies ever made or inspired down here! They may be going after Tom Cruise’s Lestat or Dennis Quaid’s accent in The Big Easy or all of Brooke Shield’s acting in Pretty Baby. And, let’s face it, Sean Payton’s Home Team wasn’t winning any Academy Awards.

  • Marching Unit – Sassyracs
Dumpster Fyre Fest

Float 25 – Dumpster Fyre Festival

It’s all about expectations versus reality. That’s the challenge with any festival. Is it as good as they promised? Or are we stranded and just have to accept what they gave us? Sorta like politics today. Candidates promise, but do they deliver? Maybe that’s why voter turnout is so low. It’s just a dumpster fyre!

  • Marching Unit – Beyorettes
Esstrogen Fest

Float 26 – Esstrogen Festival

The Barbie movie’s subliminal message is sinking in. We’ve had Ken'ough and the world is pinking up. It’s time for the ESSTROGEN Festival of Female World Domination. Like tonight, every night will be Girls Night!

  • Marching Unit – Nola Cherry Bombs
Burning Men

Float 27 – Burning Men

Everyone has heard of Burning Man - or Drowning Man if you attended in 2023. Well, that’s thanks to global warming. If you spent any time in New Orleans, or in most of the United States this past summer, you know it’s getting hot in here!! Time to attend Burning Men. Sure to be the hottest event on the planet…while it lasts.

  • Marching Unit – Kolossos Art Bikes
Running of the Bullsh_t

Float 28 – Running of the Bullsh*t

His tongue is slicker than a swamp frog’s butt and he’s running his mouth all the way to the Fox News studio as often as possible. Senator John “No Relation” Kennedy is always leading the pack in the Running of the Bullsh*t.

  • Marching Unit – Bloco Seria
Woodshock

Float 29 – Woodshock

There isn’t much that could shock a hippie after he spent those three glorious days of peace, love, and music at Woodstock back in 1969. But let that old hippie spot the fashion trends that all the influencers say are PERFECT for the festival circuit! What’s this? $2,400 for torn dirty jeans and $900 for a tie-dye shirt? SHOCKING!

  • Marching Unit – Skin-N-Bonez
  • Marching Unit – Jamettes
SIRENS

Float 30 – Sirens

The Sirens, cast out by the Muses, wrap up the parade each year. As they roll down the avenue emerging through the swamp mist, they signal the end of another Muses tHERsday and send the eternal message: “Happy Are They Whom the Muses Love!”