Hey, so I understand that you have a specific tradition surrounding Mardi Gras. Do you wanna tell me about it?

Yeah, so every Mardi Gras on the second Saturday, it’s Endymion and that parade usually takes place in mid city, so a different part of town from where we live. We’re usually right on the parade route, but for this one, we’re a little far and it’s a little less convenient to go watch the parades. 

So for the past several years, we’ve been doing a porch concert where we get numerous local musicians to set up and play on the porch and invite the whole neighborhood to come out and it’s usually a pretty good time. We end up getting, probably 100 people boiling a bunch of crawfish and stuff.

So as far as contacting local musicians and any of that stuff, how did this idea originate? Was it your dad’s idea or, you know, how do you think it came to be? 

Honestly, it was my parents drinking on the porch with their musician friends and then just kind of everybody hanging out and playing and then thinking, you know, this would be really cool if we made a party out of it and that’s kind of how it ended up being born.

Do you think that this is something that is very New Orleans, like, could only really happen there? Do you think this is something that is kind of a result of the place that you’re from or that your parents live and drink on the porch? 

Yeah, I think it’s pretty specific to New Orleans because there isn’t really a time where there are so many people just walking about on the street, so many people available on a weekend because on that weekend, like, honestly, those two weeks, your only plans are Mardi Gras. So I think it’d be harder to bring people together. And also just the access to musicians.  There’s so many in the city and so many that you’re just going to end up being friends with. So I think that closeness makes it easier, but, but yeah, I mean, I’m sure you could have a successful porch concert anywhere.

Context:

This celebration takes place in New Orleans during Mardi Gras celebrations. The origin of them celebrating this way has root in the immensely social nature of the culture surrounding New Orleans, mixed with how all-encompassing the celebration of Mardi Gras is in their lives. The little festival they hold is a sub-festival of a larger celebration and tradition, but with the same elements—musicians, drinking, etc.

My Interpretation:

This seems to be a festival that was born out of the unique circumstances of living in New Orleans, mixed with the convenience of not having to venture so far to celebrate Mardi Gras. The micro-festival is a natural offshoot of the main event.