A Parade of Dogs in New Orleans : Krewe of Barkus, 2024

Barkus should absolutely be on your bucket list. Unless you hate dogs. And, if you hate dogs … get off my blog, psycho.

The Mystic Krewe of Barkus is the annual Mardi Gras Dog Parade. It was started by a group of pooch-owning citizens who, yes, loved dogs, but also our esteemed meteorologist, Margaret Orr.

Listen, when you have as many weather events as we do down here in Swamplandia, you get very attached to the personalities at the local weather station.

So, let’s go back.

Back to 1992, when a group of buddies were lounging and imbibing at Good Friends bar in the French Quarter. They hatched a drunken plan to start a Mardi Gras dog parade and call it Barkus (Not Bacchus. Get it?). They made WDSU’s Chief Meteorologist, Margaret Orr, the official mascot/emcee/hostess-with-the-mostest. She agreed, and threw on the world’s most outrageous wig.

From a few scraggly mixed breeds and one brass band in the early ’90s, this event has grown to an hours-long, thousands-strong event. It’s an all-afternoon celebration of our most loyal loves; those fur creatures extraordinaire, who greet us every day as if we deserved all the serotonin their tiny, wiggling bodies could produce.

We don’t deserve any of it. We just do not deserve dogs, y’all.

But, for one day each year, in New Orleans, we give that outrageous, happy love back to our dogs tenfold.

Floats are painstakingly constructed. A movie theme is selected (this year, Barbi. Last year, Top Gun), and fido far-and-wide is adorned in finery. How fine? The King and Queen dogs in previous years have worn couture costumes made by skilled tailors in Paris. Of course, many people source Walmart baby tutus and make old Amazon boxes into regal chaise lounges … and that’s just as fabulous.

There are apple-sized Chihuahuas. There are Dobermans. There are Benji lookalikes, Pitbulls and Pinchers. Dogs roadtrip to the city from five hours away.

There are all manner of mutts, from a Pyrennes mix the size of a pony … to this year’s newest edition––an actual pony. Or, a mini horse, rather. Patch is a 15-year-old, one-eyed adoptee that now provides emotional support to our giant draft horses that work the parades.

I’ve digressed.

I’m back now.

Here are my favorite moments of Barkus 2024.

If you come down for anything next year, make it this. Make it the week prior to Fat Tuesday, the sunny Sunday, when we forget the troubles of being a human and party for the dogs.

Want more? Check out my coverage last year on Garden & Gun’s web site.