Krewe of Cork

Mardi Gras parades take on many shapes and sizes. This is one of the smaller parades, but it is no less fun or festive. They usually have only one band, there are several smaller sub-krewes and they offer lots of handmade throws, mostly adhering to the theme of Wine. The Krewe of Cork is made up of a variety of wine professionals, distributors, importers, restaurant owners, and the like.This parade rolls on the Friday of the first big weekend of Carnival (10 day before Mardi Gras) and starts with a luncheon at the Court of Two Sisters. If you happen to be in the French Quarter that day I can heartily recommend checking this tiny parade out.

There's nothing like walking out of a restaurant and finding a parade. I mean, I knew it was running. It was just the perfect timing!I do love a good walking parade and KoC delivered. The handmade throws (out of cork mostly) were fun and inventive. And the costumes were all over the map, with many wine puns so that was fun.It wasn't totally clear when the parade was over and the groups were widely separated, including a car ending up in the middle which always feels unsafe. So better security or some demarcation would have been better. An excellent way to spend a bit of time on a Friday afternoon.

The Court of the Two Sister is the start of the Krewe of Cork. This is one of the unique Mardi Gras Krewe. The parade takes the Royal Street and Bourbon Street through the French Quarter. This is one of the five parades in French Quarter. The parade theme is about the Vino. This is a wine parade route. People pouring wine along the route and drink the wine along the route. The beads are flying everywhere. You are not sure where the beads coming from. Along the route they have two story balconies building that people throwing the beads. The parade participants are also throwing the beads. Beads......... This parade route people are dress in the French high society costume, they holding a glass of wine at one hand and throwing beads at the other hand. Sometime the parade participant women want the men to flash the chest in order to award the special bead to them. This is very interesting. I was having a opportunity to take picture with two young ladies with naked body painted art. I have seen this in the Freemont parade at Seattle with naked painted art parade but not expect in the Mardi Gras at Bourbon Street. I am guessing anything can be happen. What happen in New Orleans Stay in New Orleans.