Mardi Gras 2027 in New Orleans: A Short Season, Key Parade Nights and How to Plan Now

The short 2027 season

The last three days carry most of what people travel for: Bacchus Sunday, Lundi Gras on Monday 8 February, and Mardi Gras Day itself. Rooms on those nights go first, so start with the New Orleans hotel search and look for somewhere you can walk back to. Streets close on parade days, so anything outside the French Quarter needs extra time.

Where the floats are built

Mardi Gras World fills a riverside warehouse at the foot of Henderson Street, and you walk through the den where next season's floats are being built. Giant fibreglass jester and king heads sit on the floor, and artists carry on working on props while you pass. You get a short film, then a guided walk, and an hour covers it. It's open every day from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with tours leaving every half hour and the last one at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are timed, so buy online before you turn up. A free shuttle runs from downtown pick-up points between 9:15 a.m. and 3:45 p.m., and the last one back leaves the site at 5:15 p.m. Go early in your trip, and not on Mardi Gras Day, when the place is shut.

Bacchus Sunday

Krewe of Bacchus is the big night parade of the final weekend. It starts at Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas at 5:15 p.m. on Sunday 7 February, comes up St. Charles Avenue under the oaks and ends at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Watching from the route is free. Theo Von reigns as Bacchus in 2027, and the floats are the tall multi-section ones lit from inside. This is one of the busiest nights of the season, so take children early and expect to stand a long time. The krewe's ball afterwards goes to members through their own accounts, so don't spend your week chasing tickets for it.

Lundi Gras on the riverfront

The Zulu Lundi Gras Festival is the free daytime part of the Monday. It takes over Woldenberg Park at the foot of Canal Street. The stages face the Mississippi. Zulu members wear black and gold and grass skirts. There are food stalls and an African Village vendor area. Last season it ran from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., so check the times before you go. Paid seating in front of the main stage is held all day and comes with food, drinks and air-conditioned toilets.

A ball you can book

Orpheuscapade, the Krewe of Orpheus ball, is on Monday 8 February, and it's the realistic way for a visitor to get inside a Carnival ball. General admission is $225 and you bring your own food and liquor, with mixers, cups and ice set out on the tables. VIP is $395, runs from 7 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., and includes an open bar and dinner and dessert buffets. Every ticket has reserved seating, and the floats roll into the hall past you. Dress is strictly formal: tuxedos or floor-length gowns. You must be 18 to get in and 21 to drink.

Carnival under a roof

The Presbytère is on Jackson Square next to the cathedral. Its permanent Carnival exhibition is the costume half of the story. Rhinestoned Rex and krewe suits stand in tall cases, feathered trains and all. A show on the Illinois Clubs and the beginnings of Black Carnival society runs to 15 May 2027. It opens daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., last tickets at 3:30 p.m., and it's $15 for adults, $13 for Louisiana residents and free for children of 6 and under. Online sales are off, so pay at the door. Last season the state museums closed from 6 to 17 February, Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras Day included, so go in the first half of your trip.

The Backstreet Cultural Museum at 1531 St. Philip Street in Tremé holds the Carnival most visitors never see. The small rooms are packed to the ceiling with Black Masking Indian suits in ostrich plumes and hand-beaded panels, Baby Doll dresses and Skull and Bone gang costumes. It's open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras Day are out. Entry is $25, or $20 for seniors, students, veterans and locals, and $15 for ages 12 to 16.

When the crowds get too much, The Historic New Orleans Collection at 520 Royal Street is free, quiet and air-conditioned, with galleries off a brick courtyard. You still need a ticket, and it opens Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30 a.m. and Sunday from 10:30 a.m., closing at 4:30 p.m. It shuts early or entirely through parade week, so make it a morning.

Music through Carnival

Preservation Hall at 726 St. Peter Street is the unamplified version: a bare room, a few benches, the band in a tight semicircle. Your ticket covers one 45-minute set, and you leave after it. Staff decide where you sit. Sets run most evenings from 5 p.m. to 8:45 p.m., with weekend matinées at 2:30 and 3:45 p.m. Children are welcome. The calendar only goes up about two weeks before the month starts, so book the day it appears.

For local bands and a dance floor, Tipitina's is at 501 Napoleon Avenue uptown. Tab Benoit plays with Duane Betts on 5 February, doors at 9 p.m. The easiest afternoon is the Sunday fais do-do, a Cajun dance, with the Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band: doors at 4:45 p.m. and music from 5:15 p.m. Every show is 18 and over, so teenagers can't come in.

Tables to book now

Commander's Palace sits in the Garden District at 1403 Washington Avenue, in a turquoise and white building with striped awnings. Take the Wednesday to Friday lunch, from 11:30 a.m., when the martinis really are 25 cents and three courses are $49. Dinner mains run $43 to $56. Jazz brunch is Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. Dress is business attire, with no shorts, t-shirts or flip-flops, and it closes on Mardi Gras Day.

The long lunch at Galatoire's, at 209 Bourbon Street, gets loud and dressed-up in Carnival week. Shrimp rémoulade is $17 and the lamb chops $57. It serves Tuesday to Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from noon, closed Monday. Men need a jacket in the main and second-floor rooms after 5 p.m. and all day Sunday, and loaners are kept at the door. Quoted prices are cash prices, with 3.5% added if you pay another way.

In Tremé, Dooky Chase's Restaurant at 2301 Orleans Avenue has been the neighbourhood Creole kitchen since 1941. The daily buffet always has red beans and rice and hot sausage, and the menu runs to gumbo, fried chicken and stuffed shrimp. Lunch is Tuesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and dinner only on Friday and Saturday from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Reserve, or you may not get a table.

Two hours off the street

The Steamboat NATCHEZ boards at 400 Toulouse Street on the Quarter riverfront, and it's the simplest way to sit down for a couple of hours mid-Carnival. The 75-minute sightseeing trip is the cheap one at $25.75 for adults and $12.75 for ages 6 to 12, but it only starts sailing on 1 February. Before that, the nightly jazz cruise is $58 without dinner or $107.50 with it.

Before you go

Book the ball, the float warehouse, the jazz hall and your restaurant tables well ahead. Keep the museums for the early part of the week. The state museums and the Royal Street galleries closed through parade week last season. Mardi Gras Day shuts the float warehouse and Commander's Palace, and the Tremé museum is closed Sunday and Monday. See the New Orleans guide for the rest of the city.