‘Gay Mardi Gras’ is New Orleans’ Labor Day fling

NEW ORLEANS — Jonathan Bray, one of the organizers of Southern Decadence, a celebration that has become known as the gay Mardi Gras, spent his time this week getting ready for the big party and watching weather reports.

“I looked out in the Gulf and didn’t see a storm,” Bray said. “No Katrina, no Gustav. I’m so happy.”

In the almost four decades since it started, Southern Decadence has become a traditional Labor Day weekend, end-of-summer, event. But for two of the last four years, hurricanes crashed the French Quarter-centered party. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Gustav last year both generated evacuation orders for the city and brought the festivities to a screeching halt.

“It’s the first thing everybody asks,” Bray said. “Can they get their money back if there’s a hurricane. We tell them they can, but this year they won’t need to worry about it.”

Still the lingering effect of the hurricanes and the evacuations have taken their toll, said Tim Lawrence, 35, a hotel manager.

“Our projected occupancy is down and I think that’s because of the hurricanes,” Lawrence said. “After Katrina it took months to be able to refund guests’ money because of credit card disputes. And even with refunds you still had to pay airfare and find a way to leave with the evacuation.”

The event started as a birthday party bar crawl with about a dozen New Orleans residents making the French Quarter circuit, Bray said. It has grown to one of the major gay events in the country, attracting about 100,000 people in the past, a welcome economic boost for French Quarter merchants during one of the slowest tourist periods.

“It’s a crowd with disposable income and they enjoy themselves,” said Mary Beth Romig of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau. “And it’s a very loyal group. They come back year after year.”

People start arriving on Wednesday and most stay until Tuesday, enjoying such events as talent contests, dance parties, and free outdoor concerts.

Although some of the events — such as the “Wet Jockey Shorts” contest — are certainly X-rated, Bray maintains the overall festival is not.

“No, we have a lot of families turn out the see the parade and costume contests,” Bray said. “And a lot of heterosexuals think it’s hip to dance at a gay club. I’d say it’s risque, with a few X-rated moments.”

On Sunday night 170 musicians from Lesbian and Gay Band Association musical organizations throughout the country will be at Harrah’s Theater for a concert entitled “Incantations.”

Almost two hundred musicians, drum majors and flag team members will march in the Southern Decadence parade on Sunday, said Roberts Batson, who is producing the Sunday night concert.

A costume show follows the parade.

Originally designed as an event for gay men, the festival has broadened over the years and now attracts lesbians and bisexuals, Bray said.

“It’s just another chance to put on a costume,” said Samson Utley, who goes by “Paloma” when he is in drag. “Other than Southern Decadence, I probably only dress in drag three or four times a year now.”

Utley, the grand marshal of Sunday’s parade, is wearing a silver full-length gown that he describes as “geisha-goth-glam,” for the parade.

“If you aren’t the grand marshal in the parade, you are just eye-candy,” he said. “When you are grand marshal, you have to make a big statement. I’m going to be glowing.”

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