This year, altered parade routes took a toll on businesses and local bands, which went unpaid. Then Rex announced that it would pay the bands booked for its parade, raising questions about the history of those payments and why they matter.

At Carnival parades, New Orleanians say hello to strangers, tote wagons and folding chairs. But Mizani Ball reports that, along the St. Charles parade route, we most often watch alongside people who look like us.

Carrying a gun at a parade may be legal, reports Nick Chrastil, looking back at several unsuccessful attempts New Orleans legislators to ban guns at parades.

New Orleans may be shifting toward a more sustainable Carnival, Delaney Dryfoos reports. Key to these efforts is the nonprofit Grounds Krewe, which sells these sustainable throws, all now embraced by local krewes.

To provide students in this high-poverty city with uniforms, instruments, bus rides, food after parades, and all necessary musical tools, New Orleans band directors must see band as a business, Marta Jewson reports.

Best known for their merkins – pubic wigs – the Bearded Oysters, dance in a few local parades, including Muses. And the troupe has now been a symbol of feminist liberation for 20 years, Tess Riley writes.

At that point in 2006, hardly anything seemed worthy of celebrating. Except we needed one day that brought New Orleans back to normal – or the abnormal, some would say.