Over the years, the  Krewe of Juluhas become one of the many wonderful Mardi Gras traditions of this city that gives life to the famous phrase, “Only in New Orleans.” What began as no more than a glimmer of an idea in 1993 by a few musical acquaintances brought together by their surprising lust for Eastern European folk music, has grown into an indescribable annual tradition each Tuesday before Lent. While Julu has always prided itself on not actually having any organization or even much discussion about the year’s celebration, it still requires a certain amount of perseverance, diligence and these days, financial support. The euphoric bisection of the Crescent City by costumed hooligans has always begun Uptown and jubilantly set sail across the City, through the French Quarter (and sometimes Treme) to the Marigny Triangle where the parade reached its culmination, but now the parade is led by a an organized group of musicians called a brass band. In the early days, an amalgamation of hung over horn players and strung out percussionists would be thrown together at sunrise to preside over that years’ festivities. Now that Julu has grown up a bit, an actual living breathing professional rehearsed brass band is hired to become the engine for the day. The Krewe still encourages audience participation of the musical kind, but we are no longer beholden to a late Algiers Ferry or a passed out drummer.

Due to this commitment for an actual Brass Band, a certain amount of funds need to be raised to guarantee that the show goes on and we aren’t relegated to accappela show tunes with a Zulu tambourine accompaniment. Both our starting venue of choice,  Barrel Proof (http://www.barrelproofnola.com) has stepped up to generously support Julu this year and to both locations we offer a laurel and hardy handshake and hopefully a large bar tab. This is not to say that additional funds are not needed to offset costs associated with the parade, but their help allows us not to have to shake everyone down for money outside Barrel Proof once again. Just remember, the only rule of Julu is that everyone needs a costume. Feel free to invite friends that will positively add to the festivities and don’t feel any pressure to hump a cannon inside Coliseum Square Park, but do feel pressure to don some killer threads.