MARDI GRAS GUIDE 2020 153

SA

TU

RD

AY, F

EB

RU

AR

Y 1

5, 3

:30

PM

SA

TU

RD

AY, F

EB

RU

AR

Y 1

5, 2

:00

PM

“To Promote good fellowship, contribute to civic good, encourage charity and keep alive the great spirit of Mardi Gras” is the mission of the club. The organization was founded eight decades ago in Algiers but moved to the East Bank in 2013. The krewe’s motif was inspired by a wooden Indian housed at the political association’s headquarters on St. Charles Avenue. The krewe pays tribute to the early Native-American settlers of Louisiana with its annual ball, the “Big Pow-Wow.” Choctaw’s king, queen, pages, and ladies-in-waiting are known as chief, princess, papooses, and Indian maidens, respectively. www.kreweofchoctaw.com

CHOCTAW

©2020 Arthur Hardy Enterprises, Inc.

U P T O W N

©2020 Arthur Hardy Enterprises, Inc.

U P T O W N

LE

E CIRCLENAP

OLE

ON

ST. CHARLES

CAN

AL

MAGAZINE

POYD

RAS

TCHOUPITOULAS

DECATUR

Led by the Offi cers on the Captain’s Float, Choctaw’s 275 men, women, and children presenting the club’s 85th parade will ride with the theme PARTY LIKE

IT’S 1999. The parade features musical tributes to that year, including the TAFKAP symbol – the Love Symbol #2, referring to the singer as “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.” The procession features 16 fl oats by PFJ, including special ones for Chief Choctaw Ricky DeCastro Jr. and his Princess Kristen DeCastro Sepulveda. Several rider fl oats will include ladies only. The Tribesmen fl oat now features more than 50 riders. Choctaw’s collectible throws include doubloons in several colors and signature Tomahawk and Chief ’s Head cutout doubloons. Specialty throws include plush spears and tomahawks, logo beads, and cups. Noteworthy are the handcrafted painted wood-en tomahawks decorated by riders that will be handed out to lucky parade watchers. Choctaw’s traditional River Parade, open to the public, will be held a week earlier, on February 8, 2020, aboard the Creole Queen, embarking from the Poydras Street dock at Spanish Plaza at 10:00 am sharp.

FRERET

Debuting in 2014, this krewe borrowed its name from a successful club of the past, the Krewe of Freret, which paraded from 1953-1993.

©2020 Arthur Hardy Enterprises, Inc.

U P T O W N

DECATURMAGAZINE

LE

E CIRCLENAP

OLE

ON

CAN

AL

HEN

DER

SON

POYD

RAS

ST. CHARLES

TCHOUPITOULAS

For its seventh parade the 500-member male and female club has announced plans for a gradual transformation into a super krewe. The 18-fl oat parade, entitled THE

MUSIC OF NEW ORLEANS, will feature a dozen super fl oats, including one that bears a two-story Trombone Shorty fi gure with a moving slide powered by a precise system of animatronics developed by Kern Studios. Local musical legends such as Louis Armstrong and Professor Longhair will also be saluted on special fl oats. The parade will travel through the “Shorty Gras” festival, a ticketed event at Mardi Gras World where Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and other local musicians will entertain. Hans Ger-witz and Holly Alvendia will reign as King and Queen. The club throws their special signature hand-crafted masks, along with blinking logo beads, black and gold sunglasses, black and gold tambourines, and doubloons for the krewe, the king, and the queen. The Krewe of Freret ball will be held at the Cabildo on January 25, 2020.