Every year, when we can, we love to go to The Lockport Parade. With the 2020 parade clear in our sights, we take a look back at the 2015 Krewe of Apollo Parade.
City Parades, Country Parades
“If you go to New Orleans, you ought to go see the Mardi Gras.”
Professor Longhair is right – of course, he is, he’s always right – if you ever visit New Orleans you should go see the Mardi Gras. However, if you ever can go to the Krewe of Apollo parade, we think you should.
Mardi Gras season starts on twelfth night and ends Mardi Gras day. There are plenty of Mardi Gras parades, but only on that Tuesday is it truly Mardi Gras. Our favorite New Orleans parade is Muses. We also call it carnival, because on Ash Wednesday, Catholics say goodbye to meat. Good Catholics, anyway.
A parade in New Orleans along the parade route is truly a marvel to behold. Parades are family affairs. The debauchary that gets associated with Mardi Gras often occurs away from the parades. What a lot of people not from the area don’t realize is that not all parades occur in New Orleans and its suburbs.
When you venture out further into bayou country, you will see run across a different set of rules and traditions. Areas such as Houma, Thibodaux, and Golden Meadow put on great family-friendly parades. Gheens has a special parade with some traditions that I have already said too much about.
The Lockport Parade
My favorite parade is my hometown parade, the Krewe of Apollo. I grew up in the small town of Lockport. Our two most famous people to come from Lockport is former LSU great Tommy Hodson (ok, he was from Mathews but he went to school in Lockport) and artist Hank Holland.
Lockport is so small it does not have a traffic light. It does have a rich football history for when it had its own high school it won at least one state championship (my dad will correct me if it’s more). Every year on the Saturday before Mardi Gras, it hosts its annual parade, the Krewe of Apollo. There are only two bands in the parade: Lockport Middle School and Central Lafourche High School.
Central Lafourche has an award-winning band that could win first place in the many other parades that are held that day, but they always show up for this small hometown parade. They always make everyone smile when they play.
The 2015 Lockport parade is definitely not a Blane Kerns affair. The floats are put together by Krewe members and decorated by Krewe members. No, they are not as beautiful as the professionally done floats that roll in the other parades. That’s what makes this parade unique. They can only be seen in Lockport.
The Krewe members work hard on the floats by dedicating what spare time they have to decorate their float. My sister was in the parade for quite a few years, and I know she put plenty of effort into her float as do all members put into theirs.
The 2015 Krewe of Apollo Parade
Recently, the parade decided to go with a theme. In 2015, it was cartoons. Again, I’m in awe at how well these floats are decorated considering that people are doing this in the small amount of free time they have.
Why we love the Lockport Parade
Because the town is so small, you can easily catch the parade more than once. It passes a block away from my parents’ house in two different places.
Between catching it the first and second time, Cristina and I walked part of the parade route looking for a friend. We didn’t find the friend, but we did catch people having fun. Families in RVs in the Church parking lot barbequing, children jumping up and down in the back of trucks with their parents because they are so excited, and families gathered in a member’s front yard with a pig on a spit. Roasted meats and boiled seafood fill the air.
Too often people associate Mardi Gras with the debauchery they see from the French Quarter. That’s only a part of it, and the smallest part of it. I associate Mardi Gras with the Lockport Parade, which means I associate it with family.
And in 2020, the Krewe of Apollo rolls on our little one’s birthday. We can’t wait to have a parade party for her!
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Loved this post. Have been to NOLA only once during the festivities, but think we’d enjoy the small town parades even better. The photos are amazing and it’s very evident how much heart and soul that went into making them. Thank you so much for reposting the experience.
Thanks! My wife took the photos. We are hoping to do the same with this year’s parade. The small parades are much more relaxing. Not that we don’t love some of the big parades…we can’t wait for Muses!
Reblogged this on The Adventures of a NOLA Nerd Couple and commented:
A re-post of last year’s coverage of the Krewe of Apollo’s parade in Lockport, Louisiana
As you know, we live in New Orleans. For most of us it isn’t about the stuff going on in the Quarter. It’s pretty much like a Christmas holiday. We visit with friends and family. We catch up with people who we’ve missed over the year. We walk to Uptown parades. Obviously, I work a lot. But, that’s just a small part of it. So, I’m with you. Mardi Gras isn’t just about the craziness…
Exactly. I love Mardi Gras in the city. It so much more than flashing for beads and the other .005% media outside of New Orleans harps on. Last year we walked in Zulu with the nyxettes, and you are right it was like Christmas. It was the most fun I ever had watching everyone enjoy it. And the food, it was torture even though everyone offered it to us just smelling all that food.
I Ride in the Lockport parade like you said it all about the good time and lots of family getting together and just to see the kids faces light up when you hand them trinkets they love toys I love when I get in front of my family house and they just waiting for that special bead makes it worth all the hard work to get everything together !!!
Kurt, your cousin Victor, was on that Peter Pan float that won 1st place. On the driver’s side, he was the very last rider – Peter Pan. We all had a very good time with him wearing green tights under his short dress. hee hee. Please let me know via pm if you see this.
Aunt Mary Lynn
We saw him. I was too ready to catch to take pics!
I bet it was fun teasing him!