Krewe of Little Rascals

Please note: Do not expose yourself at this parade. There are families with small children around. Police are nearby and you will be arrested and charged. You will not earn any beads and you will possibly be a felon.This is the first Metairie parade of the Mardi Gras season. I parked on the 2nd floor of the Lakeside Mall garage on the Veterans side of the mall. The first floor was already full. I came by myself, and figured this was the best spot as people could spread out a bit more. I walked around in the mall a bit until the parade got to the mall. The parades are on the parade tracker you can download from the local news station, which is convenient, you don't have to stand outside waiting, not knowing where the parade is at. The vehicle that tracks the parade is usually the 2nd or 3rd vehicle in the parade.This parade was decent having marching bands, dance troupes, the Kiwanis in their little cars, floats. The throws seemed plentiful. I wasn't close enough to catch anything as I knew they had no special throws. There were supposedly 24 floats in this parade. It was a decent enough time, and geared more to the family than adults. Great parade to bring your kids and older parents to.

There are so many parades in Louisiana throughout the course of Mardi Gras season and I honestly cannot keep up with them all. We stayed in Metairie over the weekend and upon check-in, I found out about the "Family Gras" festivities happening February 2-3 (2018) with a family-friendly parade kicking it off on January 28th for the Krewe Of Little Rascals. The concierge at our hotel asked me that morning if we were planning on going to the parade at 12noon and he said that it was a short walk down the street on Veterans Blvd. My family and I originally planned to attend the King Cake Festival in NOLA, but decided to go to the parade first. It took about an 1-hour for the parade to get to us (at Veterans & Severn). There was plenty of standing room, so we were able to get up close to all the action. Plenty of school marching bands, parades of cars and really cool floats. I was a little disappointed with the throws because there weren't too many and the plush toys my daughter did get were filthy. If you are planning to drive-in for this parade, just be mindful of road closures upon entering and exiting parade route. My daughter had a blast, so that was all that mattered, really. Altogether, the parade was about 2 hours. It was definitely slow moving, but still keep an eye on your kiddos going out into the middle of the street. Make sure to lookup familygras.com for all of the Family Gras festivities (outdoor concerts and food).

We had an amazing time at this parade. Parking was an ideal situation. The mall hadn't yet opened so the garage was basically empty with the exception of fellow paraders. We park and set up our chairs right on the grassy area in front of the garage. It was cool to have a less crowded parade where my kid could do his own thing as far as retrieving throws goes. The only negative I can think of was trying to leave after the parade. Not sure if you guys are familiar with the grid locked Streets of Metairie but good grief. You really learn how closed in you are when you are trying to find another exit route when they block off the main two. The way they rerouted traffic was super slow and took us forever to get out. Not that the roads can be changed obviously but it would've been nice of them to have more than one one way out for each side of the street.

Average throws. I mean it's a Metairie so you can't really judge it in the same ranks as say Muses. The traffic getting home was longer than the parade. Definitely family fun!

If negative stars were an option, I would have went that way. Absolutely do NOT expose your children to this. As a lifelong resident of New Orleans, Mardi Gras, is by far a treasured tradition. 2020 was my 2nd year to have my children participate with this krewe. The 1st year, was extremely disorganized, but year 2 tops it all. This was the first year my child was a maid. Apparently, there is a dress code requirement (formal attire) to ride on the maid float, that was NEVER communicated to me. So it goes, we arrive parade day (now live an hour away) and, for the FIRST time informed, that chaperones must be in formal attire to ride, OR my child could NOT ride. Living an hour away, it was impossible to make this happen. Therefore, my child was punished for the disorganization in communication to the parents, and NOT allowed to ride. This after all dues, costumes fees, and throw costs, not to mention one broken hearted little girl. This children's krewe is NOT for children. The disorganization of the leadership is pitiful and they punish innocent children for it. Parents - please do not waste time, money, or most importantly the heart of your children with these people. I'm disgusted. This is NOT the spirit of Mardi Gras.

I strongly dislike this parade. However, it's always the first Metairie parade of the season, and there usually isn't a NOLA parade the same weekend, so we always find ourselves here. One plus is that it isn't usually very crowded. However, overall some really lame throws, HUGE gaps between bands/floats, weird adult dancing groups (former strippers? not sure), etc. Not my cup of tea. I'm certainly not expecting Uptown-quality here, but it really is one of the worst Metairie parades.