'Gay Mardi Gras' Is New Orleans' Labor Day Fling

Riders in the Krewe of Rex parade through the city during Mardi Gras day on February 24, 2009 in New...

Riders in the Krewe of Rex parade through the city during Mardi Gras day on February 24, 2009 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Mardi Gras celebration ends at midnight, when the Catholic Lenten season begins with Ash Wednesday and culminates with Easter.

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Jonathan Bray, one of the organizers of Southern Decadence, a celebration that has become known as the gay Mardi Gras, spent his time this week getting ready for the big party and watching weather reports.

"I looked out in the Gulf and didn't see a storm," Bray said. "No Katrina, no Gustav. I'm so happy."

In the almost four decades since it started, Southern Decadence has become a traditional Labor Day weekend, end-of-summer, event. But for two of the last four years, hurricanes crashed the French Quarter-centered party. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Gustav last year both generated evacuation orders for the city and brought the festivities to a screeching halt.

"It's the first thing everybody asks," Bray said. "Can they get their money back if there's a hurricane. We tell them they can, but this year they won't need to worry about it."

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Still the lingering effect of the hurricanes and the evacuations have taken their toll, said Tim Lawrence, 35, a hotel manager.

"Our projected occupancy is down and I think that's because of the hurricanes," Lawrence said. "After Katrina it took months to be able to refund guests' money because of credit card disputes. And even with refunds you still had to pay airfare and find a way to leave with the evacuation."

The event started as a birthday party bar crawl with about a dozen New Orleans residents making the French Quarter circuit, Bray said. It has grown to one of the major gay events in the country, attracting about 100,000 people in the past, a welcome economic boost for French Quarter merchants during one of the slowest tourist periods.

"It's a crowd with disposable income and they enjoy themselves," said Mary Beth Romig of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau. "And it's a very loyal group. They come back year after year."

People start arriving on Wednesday and most stay until Tuesday, enjoying such events as talent contests, dance parties, and free outdoor concerts.