Let the festivities begin! Be drawn into a pulsing, crowded, music-filled, dramatically lit New Orleans street where excitement and fantasy reign. Roving Dixieland musicians, juggling jesters on unicycles, pantomime artists, gypsies, voodoo priests and priestesses, live mannequins and clowns zigzag through the crowd wreaking surprise and delight while the sounds of snare drums, brass horns and a Wurlitzer organ fill the air. Deep purples, midnight greens and dazzling gold decorations adorn lampposts, Bourbon Street balconies, Black Walnut and Butternut Hickory trees, as well as partygoers themselves, for guests are presented with colourful sequined and feathered masks upon arrival and showered with vibrant strings of beads from passing entertainers. Get swept up in the passing parade and spontaneous dancing or step off the main street through high stone gates adorned with gargoyles and rusty iron fencing into a misty, dilapidated cemetery in the French Quarter, where the sun bleached above-ground tombs are covered with votive candles, flowers and hoodoo coins as payment for favours from the dead. Leave some pennies of your own at the crypt of Marie Laveau, the notorious Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, turn around three times, knock three times more and make a wish! Beware the snaring Passion Flower and Creeping Thyme vines adorning the crosses and statues lining the twisting pathways – many of which are dead ends – for some say the spirits of pirates, politicians and voodoo practitioners buried here surface for the festivities…
Return to the cobbled Bourbon Street cafes to sit down at tables draped in rich, opulent fabrics and topped with luxurious wild strawberry topiary centrepieces spiralled with ribbon or watch the light dance on the floating candle ponds with native Louisiana water lilies and swamp rose. Since you’ve now worked up such an appetite, fill up with lively food like Jambalaya rice, Cajun Blackened redfish, Jerk chicken, spicy beans, shrimp remoulade and a feast of other Deep South dishes. After dinner, make a visit to the palm reader’s booth to see what the future holds in store for you and then sit back to enjoy premium wines and soft jazz piano in the glow of flickering street lanterns.
