New Orleans hosts its 1st full-dress Mardi Gras since 2020

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — People are out to party in New Orleans in the city’s first full-dress Mardi Gras since the pandemic began. Tuesday’s (March 1, 2022) fun includes back-to-back parades through the city. Masks against COVID-19 are required only in indoor public spaces. Parades were canceled last year because officials realized that 2020’s tightly packed crowds created a superspreader event. As it has for years, the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club kick off the parades with a parade that started as a mockery of white festivities, with Black riders wearing blackface and grass skirts. Next come the elaborate floats of Rex, the self-styled king of Carnival, followed by lots of homemade floats on long flatbed trailers.