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Julie Lea – Nyx Captain’s Mardi Gras Blog Series “Captain 2 Captain”

Join me  as I interview many different Mardi Gras Captains from across the New Orleans Metro area for a behind the scenes look at how traditions are formed and how parades are staged.

For my first blog in this series, I sit down with my friend Bobby Hjortsberg, the Captain of the Krewe of Freret.

 

JL  In doing research on the Krewe of Freret, I know y’all were founded in 2011, and first paraded in 2014.  Congratulations on that! What made you and the other founders decide to use the name of a former krewe, The Krewe of Freret?  

BH  We have been asked this question a lot and most people don’t believe the answer. Founder Brendan Ryan came up with the name because of our association with Freret Street.  We all went to Loyola and Freret St. was a big part of our lives, thus we became the Krewe of Freret.  We had no idea there was previously a Krewe of Freret until we filed formal paperwork with the state.

JL Parading in New Orleans has so many traditions and one of them is the signature throw.  Tell me about yours and how you guys came up with it.

BH  We wanted to do something handmade like many other Krewe’s now do.  We thought doing masks was an obvious choice for Carnival. We also wanted to throw something people could put on immediately and in a way, become part of the parade.

JL Something very unique about the Krewe of Freret that I find very interesting, and others may not  be aware of is, y’all do a Public Coronation each year.  Can you share with me details about that event?

BH So this just kind of evolved which I guess is how many great ideas come about.  We wanted to watch the first parade of the year together as a Krewe so Brendan and I walked the entire route of Krewe du Vieux to determine the best spot to set up.  Elysian Fields and Royal worked out well because of the amount of neutral ground space there. Once we picked the spot, founder Greg Rhoades noted that Elysian Fields is traditionally “the final resting place of the souls of the heroic and virtuous” in Greek Mythology.  Royal street is obviously a nod to royalty. Thus our Royals begin their reign there and also turn it over to the next royals in the same place. When they give up the crown they are going to their figurative final resting place.

JL How did the hashtag #BeMardiGras come about?

BH #BeMardiGras came about as a result of the masks.  We wanted people to immediately put the masks Bon that we threw and tag them on Social Media.  This allowed folks to actively participate in our parade while at the same time giving the riders a cool look at where their throws ended up.

JL What’s the biggest surprise to you about being a Mardi Gras Krewe Captain?

BH The amount of work that goes into it. It is a year around almost every day job and we only have 400 riders. The amount of time and planning that goes into a 3 hour event is truly mind boggling.

JL You and I have shared some great memories through the years celebrating at different events.  I have pictures to prove it! What would you say is your greatest Mardi Gras memory since the Krewe of Freret has hit the streets?

BH My greatest Mardi Gras memory was the first time our floats turned onto St. Charles avenue in 2014. The weather was perfect and the crowds were enormous.  It was also the first time I had ever ridden in a parade.  Although I had been invited to ride many times before, I wanted to save the experience for when we finally pulled it off on our own.  It was worth it!

 

Bobby Hjortsberg and Julie Lea New Orleans
Freret Captain Bobby Hjortsberg & Nyx Captain Julie Lea

 

JL What’s the best piece of advice you ever got about running a krewe and who was it from?

BH I bet I know why you asked this question lol.  The best piece of advice I ever got about running the Krewe of Freret was don’t wait. We were told not to wait until we thought  we were ready to get a permit or until we were “big enough” because we would never feel ready for such a huge step.  We were also told if we waited we would never get it because the competition for permits was growing and there were only a finite number of them left. It was you of course who gave us this advice. Without that guidance its a pretty safe bet that we would have never been successful in getting a permit and ultimately fulfilling our dream of parading down St. Charles ave.  We will forever be grateful for that piece of advice and all of the other help we got from you and Nyx along this awesome journey!

 

The Krewe of Freret’s membership is currently open.  For more information, visit their site,  www.kreweoffreret.com. 

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How a purse became a Mardi Gras float!

How does a fabulous purse become a beautiful float in Mardi Gras, New Orleans’ greatest free show on earth?

Learn how an idea comes full circle to reality.  The end result is pretty amazing!  We love what you did sisters!  This amazing float is the only “purse of its kind.”  We love that  Nyx created an original.  Its quite a sight to see to a giant purse rolling down the streets during carnival.

Read the story, from concept to reality of how the biggest Mardi Gras Parading Krewe in history made their Purse Float come to life.

  • For one Mardi Gras Krewe down in New Orleans, they throw coveted hand decorated purses to the crowds as special treasures.  Each purse thrown from members of the Mystic Krewe of Nyx to the sea of people who come see their parade, is a special exchange between the rider and the person who catches it.

    So the krewe decided to turn that special treasure, the purse, into a Mardi Gras float.  How exactly does that happen?  It all starts with a concept and taking an idea and putting it on paper from an artist who understands the vision of the captain to make the visual connection between the idea and putting it on paper.

    For the Krewe of Nyx, the concept of the purse float was created early in 2012, just one year after the krewe was formed.  The vision was for a huge purse to carry riders down St. Charles Avenue during the parade.  Wanting the purse float to be visually appealing, sturdy, and safe were of the utmost concern.

    After months of tweaking the concept, the artist came up with a beautiful rendering of what the float would look like and a sketch was made.

    Mardi Gras Float Krewe of Nyx 

    Once everyone was in agreement to the plan and the concept, the next difficult part of the process was taking the design to the float builder to make sure that the purse could actually be turned into a float.  Mardi Gras in New Orleans has some of the most beautiful floats in the world.  And while they are visually appealing, they have to be structurally sound and safe. 

    How many riders the float will hold, and much how much weight the chassis can support to accommodate that number of riders is really where it all begins in terms of the bones of the structure.  The size of the float as far as dimensions are concerned is also a big decision.  The next decisions to be made are will the float be a single or double decker, where the bathroom will be located, and how riders will get on and off.  Once these major decisions are made, the builder must decide which materials to use to make the float.   The Nyx Krewe had a lot of decisions to make.

    Design ideas are thrown around for several months about lighting, painting, colors to use and how to make the purse one of the prettiest floats in Mardi Gras.  

    It was decided for this particular Mardi Gras float, the size would be 14ft high, 10 ft wide, and 30 feet long.  How the riders would appear coming out the top of the purse was another challenge  that the engineers had to overcome.

    For the Krewe of Nyx, the brand new purse float made its debut on the streets of New Orleans in the 2016 parade for the krewe’s 5th anniversary. 16 lucky ladies rode down St. Charles Avenue in a huge pink purse that became the first signature Mardi Gras float for Nyx.   It is a spectacular sight to see each year, and the end result was surely worth the wait.

    Krewe of Nyx Purse Float

     

     

     

    It took four years from concept to reality and is the pride of the krewe.  From one simple idea is how a fabulous purse became a Mardi Gras float.