Krewe of Bonaparte Mardi Gras Parade

Mardi Gras float - Photo by Vinson Mouser

Phantom of the Opera theme float - Photo by Vinson Mouser

The weekend before Mardi Gras has come and gone and I had a blast with the family.

After a lot of discussion and changed plans we finally decided to go to the Krewe of Bonaparte Mardi Gras Parade in Lafayette. The parade was on Saturday at 6:30 PM.

We arrived in Lafayette around 1:30 PM and decided to stop off for some boudin and BBQ. After the boudin and BBQ we walked a few blocks to the St. John Cathedral and took a peak inside. We then headed to the parade route to scout it out.

Around 4:00 PM we went to the federal courthouse located on Lafayette Street. There were people already there so we decided to stay. This was a nice location, well lit, and it had a lot of room for the kids to play.

We determined that we probably could have arrived around 5:30 PM and still had a front row view of the parade as this was when the bigger crowds began arriving.

The parade arrived in our area around 7:30 PM. There were about 5 bands and a bunch of floats. We really enjoyed listening to the bands as they passed by our area. Each of the bands did maneuvers that could only be described as marching and dancing combined. We must have chosen a good location because four of the five bands stopped and played right by us.

The floats were lit up for the night parade and the themes on the float varied from clowns to pirates. There were a lot of good quality beads thrown, the revelers were generous and we came home with plenty.

I would recommend this parade to anyone interested in a fun Mardi Gras parade.

I will blog later on  our stop to eat and St. John’s Cathedral.

For a view of the parade be sure to watch the video clip below.