Looking for Mardi Gras floats in New Orleans and beyond? See the official map with 3,000 locations | Carnival

Mardi Gras floats have appeared in New Orleans by the hundreds in the past few weeks, but it has been impossible to find them all. At least until today.

Now, thanks to a large map provided by the Krewe of House Floats, fans of Crescent City’s newest carnival costume will know exactly where to look.

The map went live on February 1st on the krewe website, kreweofhousefloats.org.

The official map shows floats from 39 sub-krews spread across New Orleans, several states and even some other countries. There are floats everywhere – Alaska, Australia, UAE, London and beyond.

The map lists the name of the house float, the address, the sub-krewe and the ideal viewing time. Organizers remind people not to crowd when visiting homes in an effort to keep everyone safe during the coronavirus pandemic.

Here is the official map of the Krewe of House Floats (see on Google Maps):

The map was part of the Krewe of House Floats plan from the beginning.

It was late November, a few days after the city revealed that there would be no parades in 2021, when Megan Boudreaux, an Algiers-based insurance claims manager, came up with a modest plan. Boudreaux decided that since there would be no real floats during the upcoming carnival, she would decorate the front porch as if it were a float. At Mardi Gras, she planned to throw trinkets at passersby. It was just that.

Then she posted her plan on Facebook, looking for neighbors interested in turning their homes into floats too. Unexpectedly, his Krewe of House Floats page exploded with hundreds, then thousands of followers, eager for a way to celebrate the COVID Carnival.

As Boudreaux explained in a video on the krewe Facebook page, “This is a totally voluntary krewe that came out of the hole on a zero budget and took something that did not exist two and a half months ago and became this super amazing world krewe with 3,000 houses participants. ”

A map was being drawn up almost from the beginning and Boudreaux is hopeful that the complicated cartography will go on the air without fail. But otherwise, she expects everyone to realize that “we have day jobs and families and no one is being paid. So be patient with us. This is a labor of love.”

The time limit for adding more floating houses to the map has passed.

Boudreaux did not invent the decoration of the carnival house, of course, but by founding his organization at the perfect time, it fostered a phenomenon that not only provided catharsis during the contagion of the coronavirus, but could become part of the carnival forever.

Ironically, Boudreaux began to call himself an admiral of the fleet of domestic floats. In a post on Friday, she reminded participants and fans that despite the popularity of the activity, everyone needs to be aware of social distance.

“Since some of these incredible facilities are already starting to cause traffic jams,” she wrote, “this seems like a good time to remind people not to pile up! Take your picture, take your bid and move on to the next visitors Enjoy! All of us who have already decorated need to be attentive to ensure that people do not delay. After all, a parade that gets boring after the initial eviction of bids anyway! Keep rolling! ”

Bounce star Big Freedia is the great marshal of Krewe.