Reading Time 5 minutes

I must say, I didn’t have a lot of interest in going to Mardi Gras World. It’s just a bunch of floats that you can see pictures of any time you want on Youtube or Google Images. But I have to color myself as wrong. It is much more than that. I’ll explain.

Today, our next to last day in New Orleans, we had the Mardi Gras World on our agenda. We decided to leave our car in the parking garage at the hotel and walk to Mardi Gras World. It was about a mile away from our hotel. We walked down Julia Street, towards the Mississippi River, took a right on Convention Center Blvd, and walked the length of the convention center. The convention center, like the Riverfront Outlets, is linear, stretching about six tenths of a mile along the river. Here are some fun facts about the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans is famous (or perhaps infamous among attendees) for its sheer length. It is one of the longest buildings in the United States.

Total Length: The front of the main building stretches for approximately 1 kilometer (about 0.62 miles) along the Mississippi River.

If you were to walk from the far end of Hall A to the far end of Hall J, you would cover roughly 11 city blocks. This makes it the largest contiguous exhibit hall in the United States, meaning all 1.1 million square feet of exhibit space are connected on a single floor without permanent walls breaking the path.

Key Stats: Total Interior Space: Over 3 million square feet. Contiguous Exhibit Space: 1.1 million square feet.
Hall Layout: There are 12 separate but connected exhibit halls (Halls A through J).
Walking Time: A brisk walk from one end to the other usually takes about 15–20 minutes.

Walking down Convention Center Blvd. we passed under some of many overhead weaving multi-lanes roads in this area.

Arriving at the end of the convention center (Hall J), we took a left on Henderson Street which dead ends at Mardi Gras World—right on the edge of the river.

We walked in and down a hall of oversized props formerly used in the Mardi Gras parades—a teaser for what we could expect from the tour.

We bought tickets to the event and were given a purple bead necklace as our admission ticket. Our tour would start in about 10 minutes. The lobby doubles as a gift shop, with a wide assortment of souvenirs for those interested in taking some of the Mardi Gras spirit back home with them. In the back there is a large outdoor patio overlooking the Mississippi River.

Soon our tour guide appeared at the entry door to the warehouse. His name was Lucky. Lucky was probably the best tour guide we could have wished for. He was funny and was overflowing with enthusiasm. He methodically started learning the names of many of those in our group He made a quick introduction saying he was also a magician—something he exhibited during our tour. He told us that Mardi Gras actually started in Mobile, Alabama in 1703.

We were all led into a cozy little theater and shown a 15-minute film about the history of Mardi Gras, the Kern family, and how the event grew from a very local small event to become a worldwide phenomenon. The presentation touched on the Kern family some, but I wanted to learn more about this influential family so I did a little research on them. And it is a fascinating read. Here are a few facts about the family that is responsible for this event.

• Blaine Kern was the founder of Kern Studios in 1947, when a local parade captain saw a mural Blaine painted on a hospital wall to help pay for his mother’s medical bills. He hired Blaine to build floats. That’s where it all started.
• Blaine travelled to Europe, learning float building techniques in Italy and France.
• He founded Mardi Gras World so that tourists could get a glimpse of this event all year long, rather than just during Mardi Gras.
• He created “Super-Floats” – Massive floats that carried over 200 riders, used by the famed Endymion and the Bacchus krewes.
  

  

• The successor to Blaine was Blaine’s son, Barry Kern. Barry became the new President and CEO of Mardi Gras World. He is responsible for Mardi Gras spreading beyond Louisiana and into the world at large.
• He also made floats for Universal Studios, Walt Disney World, and sporting events such as the Super Bowl.
• The Kern family conducts workshops here, and employ hundreds of painters, sculptors, and artists to keep the yearly themes of Mardi Gras alive.

Now back to the Lucky tour. After the film ended we were served what known as King Cake, a classic New Orleans treat. Lucky served each of us and while he served cake to the curious crowd, he carried on his usual clever banter, all the while getting to know the names of some of the group.

From there we were led to the “Grand Hall”, the enormous warehouse where floats and props are created, repurposed into new floats or props, and stored till the next big event. Seeing these in person was amazing. They are truly bigger than life. Literally in this case. Some of the props and figures were over 20 feet tall.

We saw the CNC machine called Pixie that can carve an entire figure out of styrofoam, as long as 60 feet long. The machine if fed the data about the figure, the material is loaded, and it is set to run during the night. In the morning you have the first draft of a completely unique prop or figure, ready for refinement and paint.

After Lucky finished leading us through the warehouse, showing us artists at work – some at computers creating designs, other repairing or detailing a prop, and artists painting these gigantic props and floats – we were allowed to freely roam almost all of the warehouse, taking pictures of the floats and learning more about the towering props.

We gazed at the familiar figure of Cleatus, which was, for you football fans, the official mascot of the NFL on Fox. Cleatus is 10 feet tall, fabricated from styrofoam, covered with fiberglass, and then painted in glossy automotive paint. He weighs about 500 lbs.

Here are a few more photos:

When the tour finished we walked outside and waited for the shuttle to take us down to French Quarter for lunch today.

Have you been to the New Orleans Mardi Gras? What was it like? Let us know in the comments below. Subscribe to this blog on our front page and you’ll receive a notice each time I post an article. Thanks for reading.