New Orleans Saints Super Bowl Celebration Parade, a.k.a. Lombardi Gras

They called it Lombardi Gras, or Dat Tuesday. Celebrating the New Orleans Saints' first-ever Super Bowl victory, the over-the-top extravaganza featured a razzle-dazzle line-up of Mardi Gras floats conveying Saints players, coaches, cheerleaders, staff and family members through the streets of the city. Drawing the biggest crowd ever to watch a parade in New Orleans—estimates ran as high as 800,000—it generated unprecedented levels of excitement and traffic gridlock, and left commentators grasping for superlatives. Lombardi Gras was, by many accounts, simply the "best parade ever," and set an almost impossibly high bar for any other city hosting a championship celebration.

But if the cavalcade followed the format a Mardi Gras parade, the usual dynamic—of everyone having their own little parade party and getting caught up in the mania for catching throws—simply didn't apply. An entirely different set of expectations was in play. For spectators, it was more about giving—expressing thanks to the players, coaches and staff for bringing the joy of championship to New Orleans—than receiving or being entertained. The throws tossed by the players were almost superfluous. What mattered was catching a glimpse of the heroes and bearing witness to history. Instantly recognizable in their white Super Bowl game jerseys, the players were having the time of their lives simultaneously acknowledging and stoking the unbridled love, euphoria and excitement being exuded by hundreds of thousands of highly emotional fans.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• New Orleans Saints
• Super Bowl
• celebration parade
• Lombardi Gras
• Dat Tuesday
• Drew Brees
• Sean Payton