New Orleans does not exactly need an excuse to turn a weekend into theater, but Labor Day brings one of its most exuberant transformations.
The French Quarter fills with costumes, music, packed sidewalks, and the kind of joyful chaos that makes checking your watch feel completely irrelevant.
At the center of that history sits a small Royal Street bar with an outsized role in the celebration. What began in 1972 as a costume farewell party among friends eventually grew into a major LGBTQ+ tradition drawing enormous crowds every year…