Almost six months ago, Tulane students returned or began their first year in the sweltering heat of the last weeks of August. Around that time, everyone in New Orleans, including students themselves, celebrated the halfway point to the city’s beloved carnival season and its legendary Mardi Gras.

As second semester already seems to be flying by, the days leading up to Mardi Gras go with it. We are rapidly approaching one of the world’s most exciting annual festivals, and each day of January is a celebration in it’s own. Of the initial parades that lead up to the weekend before Mardi Gras, there’s one that is so raunchy and so debauched that it sets the tone for the climax of carnival season: Krewe du Vieux.  

Krewe du Vieux, although somewhat early this year, is the first real parade of Mardi Gras, filled with floats, fun costumes and fistfuls of beads. This Saturday, Krewe du Vieux will travel downtown in the French Quarter, Central Business District and in the Marigny. Visitors should expect to see a small preview of what the five-day stretch of Mardi Gras is truly like, catching throws and beads, hearing live music and getting wildly dressed for the occasion.

The krewe is most well-known for its lavish floats and parades that revolve around the sexual and unconventional. Expect to see a krewe that combines “Fifty Shades of Grey” with a carney-style circus to form an unholy and absolutely wonderful night.

Additionally, the Civic Theater will host a “Krewe du Vieux Doo” performance by George Porter Jr. and The Runnin’ Pardners with special guest Walter Wolfman Washington. And lastly, some students and locals will be lucky enough to attend one of the Mardi Gras balls, which is an invitation-only, formal event thrown by the King and Queen of each Krewe whose identity becomes revealed at some point during the night.

Krewe du Vieux is a truly spectacular taste of the festivities that are just around the corner.