New Orleans Mardi Gras – The Festival with indescribable feelings.

The feeling of attending Mardi Gras is incomparable with any feeling, but being at the forefront of the parade is a feeling indescribable.

Mardi Gras is a must in New Orleans. It is one of the celebrations of the year with exciting sights and sounds and floats. You will never know the worth of the season until you attend one. It is not enough for you to attend, you must plan it carefully to relinquish every moment.

Yes, millions all over the world love the Mardi Gras. People plan their trips just to get a feel of the Mardi Gras celebration. As exciting as this sounds, nothing can be compared when you are part of the parade team. To be part of the parade, you must be join a krewe.

The Mardi Gras season is the season where every kind of dressing is simply imaginable. It is an event-loaded period with contests for the best costumes with the crowd watching with much as much fun and enthusiasm as the parades themselves.

You cannot talk about the Mardi Gras without making mention of beads, stuffed animals, cups, and doubloons. You will hear the crowd cheering, “Throw me something, Mister!” at the riders of the floats. Get ready with your cloth bag or sturdy plastic to get a hold of all treasures thrown at you. You must be ready for the fun because some people due to over-excitement may grab the beads you have collected. The fun never ends until midnight on Mardi Gras night.

Each year the Mystic Krewe of Nyx parades on the Wednesday night before Mardi Gras. If you have the chance to see it, you won’t be disappointed. Just yell for the ladies “Throw me something Sister!” to catch some of the fun swag and useful throws that Nyx is known for.

We hope to see you all on the Avenue!

April 7, 2018May 31, 2018

Krewe Leader- A conversation with Julie Lea

Written by: Julie Couret. Julie is a charter member of the Mystic Krewe of Nyx. She is a leadership team development coach and CEO of her company, 7602coach.com.

In the off season of Carnival, I sat down with Mystic Krewe of Nyx Founder and Captain Julie Lea. With a krewe of over 3,300 women founded only seven years ago, I was eager to hear the correlation between Julie’s role in creating from nothing New Orleans’ supreme all female super krewe.

Me: Julie, you’ve been an organizational leader in your career. What is the primary similarity between leading a carnival krewe and a workplace team?

Julie L: I think leading a parade is the same as leading a team in the workplace because in both situations you need people to buy into the organizations missions and goals. In the workplace employees are paid a salary to carry out those goals and missions.

In a parade it is different because the members of the organization pay to have fun and are there because they want to be. They are there for entertainment and enjoyment away from their jobs and other responsibilities.

Me: That is an interesting point, these women choose to be a part of Nyx. Julie, you mentioned “buy in” as a key piece in the organization, whether that woman is sitting in a cubicle or standing on a float. Tell me more.

Julie L: Leading people is really the same no matter what the title or specific job. You have make people feel valued and a part of what you are trying to accomplish. As Krewe Captain I have to clearly let my members know my expectations so we put our best foot forward to the community in our parade and other events throughout the year. In turn, I listen to them and adjust plans at times based on suggestions and ideas to improve the way we do things. Most people are extremely proud to belong to a group or organization. I always strive to build on that pride to make us the best we can be.

Me: As a Nyx member myself, I personally understand that feeling of pride to be representing this krewe and at the same time, being a part of something bigger than me. And you provided this opportunity for me and several other thousand women. And we know the path wasn’t paved when you went to create this krewe. That has got to feel good!

Julie L: The legacy I hope to leave in the pages of Mardi Gras history is that I was a leader who saw an opportunity to bring women together. That I didn’t take no for an answer and created an amazing Sisterhood. I also hope I’m remembered as a leader who pushed the envelope. My wish is that the Krewe of Nyx will remain a source of joy and happiness for women and the community of New Orleans long after I am gone.

April 6, 2018April 14, 2018

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.

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.

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.