Taking on New Adventures

On Wednesday night, I rode in the Krewe of Nyx parade for the 6th time. This year’s ride was supposed to be the best ever. The weather was outstanding, and the rain that was forecast held off for the day. We knew this would be the most crowded and offer so many amazing memories!

After a fun lunch with my friends on the float and a preparty where we got to hang out with the entire Krewe, we made our way on the bus to the float loading area and got settled in. Around 5:00, we started the trek to the beginning of the parade. Excitement was in the air and we definitely were anxious to get rolling.

The parade started 30 minutes later than scheduled thanks to Druids being slower than planned. It leads me to a lot of “what if’s” but I’ll get to that later. But finally, at 8:00, float 14 of the 44 Nyx tandem floats made the turn onto Jefferson and started our 2020 ride.

The parade was slow moving at times and extremely fast at others. The crowds were HUGE. While Nyx always brings out big crowds regardless of the weather but this was the largest I had ever seen. It was 10-12 deep at various areas along Magazine.

And we threw. We had to be cautious about throwing too much here because it’s a long parade and we all wanted to have great throws for people towards the end as well as at the beginning.

Throughout the parade, people came up to the float and banged on the float for throws, had kids on their shoulders asking for things and jumping up to grab whatever they could off the ledges, including some of our drinks! It was a madhouse and mostly fun but a little scary too.

Around 9:15 or so, the parade stopped. This is not completely unusual but we sat there for a good bit of time and knew something was up. I hopped onto Twitter and saw the awful news that a woman had been hit by a float and killed on Magazine and Valence, about a mile behind our location.

We did what we could to figure out what was going on based on Twitter and the updates on the parade tracker. Eventually, we started rolling again but there was definitely a dark cloud hanging over the parade.

That didn’t stop the crowds and we did our best to put smiles on our faces and get the throws to everyone. We also asked people to not get so close to the float because it was dangerous. No one really listened but it was a concern of the ladies in my area. We just didn’t want someone else to get hurt.

The parade finally ended for our float around 11:20 or so and we offloaded our coolers and small bags to head home. Once I got home, I started reading up on what happened along Magazine.

The tragedy was horrific. I cannot even imagine what the ladies on Float 21 went through seeing the accident and also having to sit there and not move off the float while NOPD investigated. And for the people in the area, there is no doubt they are traumatized as well.

It brings me to the “what if’s”. What if Druids ran as planned? Would this woman had been at that float, or any for that matter, and crossed over the tandem? What if the parade ran a little faster and didn’t stop long enough for her to cross over a float? What if people had a little more self awareness on the route and didn’t get as close to the floats?

When a tragedy happens that cancels the parade, obviously the first thing everyone thinks of are the people directly involved, the family of the victim, the witnesses who saw what happened and the first responders who had to attend to the scene. But let’s not forget that other people are affected by this as well, just on a different level.

I know it’s trivial, but I also feel so bad for the ladies on the floats that hadn’t even started rolling yet. If you have never ridden in a parade, you probably don’t understand just how much money is spent on the throws, dues, ball gowns, headpieces, etc. So many of the women also spend hours and hours decorating their purses so that they can throw along the route. All in all, riders go ALL IN on the parade and do everything they can to make it fun for the spectators.

Women fly in just for the parade. They don’t have the option to come in another day. They spend a ton of money on travel alone just to come down for the parade.

We all take time off of work, sometimes against the boss’s wishes, to spend all day setting up and riding in the parade, time off to load in the days leading up to the parade and time off to recover on Thursday.

I don’t say this flippantly but it’s not like we just walk up to the float at 4pm and we go. It’s a full process that last all day and even the days preceding the parade.

It’s sad that no matter what, the 2020 Krewe of Nyx parade has a dark cloud over it due to the unfortunate death that happened so early in the parade. And while Mardi Gras celebrations will continue throughout the weekend, everyone involved in the Krewe of Nyx will remember this year as one of unspeakable tragedy, no matter how great the weather and how awesome the crowds were.