WWOZ show hosts are out there enjoying Carnival 2008. Check out their blogs to find out what parades and parties they are attending.

WWOZ will be riding in Zulu, so look out for the broadcast truck during the parade and check back occasionally for additional coverage.

If it’s your first or your 65th, there is always fun to be found during the Carnival season. It’s an early Mardi Gras this year (February 5th), so Carnival starts early. The first parade in the city will be Saturday, January 19th, with the always funny and naughty Krewe de Vieux.

To many outside the city, Carnival is one day of debauchery dominated by inebriated college-aged kids on Bourbon Street either throwing over-sized beads or taking off certain items of clothing to get beads. For those of us who live in the largest city in Southeast Louisiana, Carnival is two weeks of family, friends, dressing up, dancing, throwing beads from floats and standing at the same street corner where we have all our lives, to put the grand-kids up on ladders in front and wait for our friends to come by on floats and shower us with trinkets.

For some it is a frantic day of last-minute sewing on a costume that’s been a year in the making. It is the day for the Mardi Gras Indians to come out of their neighborhood spots to show the world how pretty their new suits are. It is a morning when the Skull and Bones come into the neighborhoods to scare the kids straight and when the Baby Dolls are gathering for their appearance along the streets.

Carnival is many things to many people. If you haven’t come to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras, you haven’t lived yet, but you can get a flavor of it on WWOZ.

Parades - Blogs - Special 'OZ Shows - Special Events

New Orleans Area Carnival Parades

SATURDAY, JANUARY 19

• Krewe du Vieux - French Quarter, 7:00 p.m.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25

• Oshun - Uptown, 6:00 p.m.
• Atlas - Metairie, 6:30 p.m.
• Cleopatra - West Bank, 6:30 p.m.
• Excalibur - Metairie, 7:00 p.m.
• Pygmalion - Uptown, 7:00 p.m.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26

• Pontchartrain - Uptown, 1:00 p.m.
• Shangri-La - Uptown, 2:00 p.m.
• Caesar - Metairie, 6:00 p.m.
• Sparta - Uptown, 6:00 p.m.
• Pegasus - Uptown, 6:45 p.m.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 27

• Alla - West Bank, Noon
• Carrollton - Uptown, Noon
• King Arthur - Uptown, 1:15 p.m.
• Barkus - French Quarter, 2:00 p.m.
• Rhea - Metairie, 3:45 p.m.
• Centurions - Metairie, 5:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30

• Druids - Uptown, 6:00 p.m.
• Thor - Metairie, 7:00 p.m.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31
All Thursday parades canceled due to storms
Two were rescheduled on other days

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1

• Hermes - Uptown, 6:00 p.m.
• Aquila - Metairie, 7:00 p.m.
• d’Etat - Uptown, 6:30 p.m.
• Jason - Metairie, 7:30 p.m.
• Morpheus - Uptown, 7:45 p.m.
• Muses - Uptown, 8:00 p.m.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2

• NOMTOC - Westbank, 10:45 a.m.
• Iris - Uptown, 11:00 a.m.
• Tucks - Uptown, 12:30 p.m.
• Endymion - Uptown, 4:30 p.m.
• Isis - Metairie, 6:00 p.m.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3

• Okeanos - Uptown, 11:00 a.m.
• Chaos - Uptown, 11:15 p.m.
• Thoth - Uptown, 11:30 a.m.
• Mid-City - Uptown, 2:00 p.m.
• Bacchus - Uptown, 5:15 p.m.
• Napoleon - Metairie, 5:30 p.m.

LUNDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 4

• Proteus - Uptown, 5:15 p.m.
• Orpheus - Uptown, 5:45 p.m.
• Zeus - Metairie, 6:30 p.m.

MARDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 5

• Zulu - Uptown, 8:00 a.m.
• Rex - Uptown, 10:00 a.m.
• Elks Orleans - Uptown, 11:30 a.m.
• Crescent City - Uptown, follows Elks
• Argus - Metairie, 10:00 a.m.
• Jefferson Trucks - Metairie, follows Argus
• Elks Jefferson - Metairie, follows Jefferson
• Grela - West Bank, 11:00 a.m.
• Choctaw - West Bank, Noon

Special Events During Carnival

French Market Presents Mardi Gras Mambo

Mask Market, Music and much more

From 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday - February 1st to Monday February 4th, 2008

Enhancing a Mardi Gras tradition, the French Market is incorporating Mambo Music into the Mask Market that citizens look forward to each year.

Mask makers from as far away as Portland, Oregon will join mask makers from Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and New Orleans to show and to sell their handmade masks in booths in Dutch Alley.

Mambo Music Line-Up:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1

• 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m. - New Wave Brass Band
• 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - New Birth Brass Band

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2

• 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m. - Rebirth Brass Band
• 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. - Navy Band New Orleans (Dumaine and Decatur Streets)
• 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - 101 Runners (Mardi Gras Indian Funk)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3

• 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m. - Jabo and the H-Town Players (Zydeco)
• 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. - Navy Band New Orleans (Dumaine and Decatur Streets)
• 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - Wild Magnolias (Indians)

LUNDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 4

• 12:00 noon to 2:00 p.m. - Mardi Gras Indians
• 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - Hot 8 Brass Band

All music will be at St. Philip and Decatur Street — except where noted — and is free and open to the public.

Zulu Lundi Gras Celebration

LUNDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 4

Zulu King’s Stage - Master of Ceremony Mr. Clarence Becknell

• 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. - Free Agents Brass Band
• 11:20 - 12:30 p.m. - Amanda Shaw & the Cute Guys Cajun Band
• 12:50 - 2:00 p.m. - Ed Perkins
• 2:20 - 3:30 p.m. - Vieux Carré
• 3:50 - 5:00 p.m. - Charmaine Neville with Reggie Houston & Amassa Miller

Zulu Golden Nugget Stage - Master of Ceremony - Mr. Lester Pollard

• 10:00 - 10:50 a.m. - Zulu Ensemble
• 11:10 - 12:20 p.m. - Troy Sawyer
• 12:40 - 1:50 p.m. - James Rivers Movement Band
• 2:10 - 3:20 p.m. - Rebirth Brass Band
• 3:50 - 5:00 p.m. - Big Al Carson & The Rare Connections

Frito Lay Children Stage (Children Village) - Master of Ceremony Mr. Gralen Banks

• 10:45 - 11:45 a.m. - Kelly School of Dancing
• 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. - Adella Adella the Storyteller
• 1:15 - 2:15 p.m. - Calvin Johnson, Jr.
• 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. - Charmaine Neville w/R. Houston & Amassa Miller
• 3:40 - 4:20 p.m. - JOMAJO Performance Company

The Mohawk Hunter Mardi Gras Indians Presents: Mardi Gras Indian Practice and Lundi Gras Mardi Gras Indian Showdown

Featuring: The Mohawk Hunters, The Black Eagles, The Creole Wild West, and The Wild Magnolias

LUNDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 4

Time: 12:00 noon - 6:00 p.m.
Location: The Village, 200 Patterson Road, in Algiers at the Canal Street Ferryboat Landing - West Bank side - across from the Algiers Courthouse.

Mardi Gras Indian Tribes mask & demonstrate Mardi Gras traditions, with chants & percussion. Grand Finale Mardi Gras Indian Showdown where the tribes meet with full percussion and the Wild Magnolias in full costume with full band.

Live Performance By The Wild Magnolias

The Village will also have cultural arts, art, food & beverage booths on site, and a great festive atmosphere.

MARDI GRAS DAY OPEN HOUSE

Backstreet Cultural Museum
“A Powerhouse Of Knowledge”
1116 St. Claude Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70116

One block from the French Quarter in the Historic Treme District

MARDI GRAS, FEBRUARY 5

8 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Starting out at 8 a.m.: breakfast with the North Side Skull & Bone Gang

Other guests throughout the day including:

• Mardi Gras Indians
• Ernie K-Doe Baby Dolls
• Ashton Ramsey with his “paper suit”
• Community masqueraders

Special appearances by:

Big Chief Fi Yi Yi and the Mandingo Warriors
Big Chief Charles Taylor and the White Cloud Hunters
Big Chief Donald Harrison and Congo Nation

This year’s celebration honoring Treme’s own
Big Chief Al Morris of the North Side Skull & Bone Gang

Food, drinks and refreshments sold from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Music by DJ Ernie “Shotgun Joe” Skipper and the New Birth Brass Band