Smaller krewes making big impact on N.O. Mardi Gras

A new generation of parades is hitting the streets of New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and they’re throwing away old traditions of big, glitzy floats and celebrity kings and queens for smaller, greener and sometimes naughtier floats with a hipster sensibility. These smaller krewes are drawing on the talents of local artists and satirizing everything from politics to local customs. One float, labeled “Benz Over,” spoofed the recent sale of naming rights for the Superdome to Mercedes-Benz. The float carried a small replica of the Dome with large buttocks for a roof. Another krewe’s floats are set atop people-powered adult tricycles fashioned from material salvaged after Hurricane Katrina. But even though they’re infusing the carnival parades with new ideas, in some ways the alternative krewes are drawing on very old Mardi Gras traditions that predate the era of automobiles and motorized floats. Krewe du Vieux uses mules, or sometimes bicycles, to draw its 17 small floats, which are built on boat trailers no more than eight feet long and 12 feet high. Krewe members also march with their floats rather than riding on them, and each float is accompanied by a New Orleans brass band. Read the full feature from The Associated Press here.