This Mardi Gras artist in New Orleans
is sanding down a sculpture for a float,
even though there's no parade this year.
The new normal? People are turning their homes
into colorful spectacles to keep the holiday alive.
Longtime NOLA resident Megan Boudreaux
had the idea
for house floats back in November.
I said, "Well, I'm just going to decorate my house,
and I'll throw things at my neighbors."
Everybody's got 200 pounds of beads in their attic
from past Mardi Gras parades.
Soon, homeowners across the city hopped
on board, like Carley Sercovich,
who's adding the final touches
to her coral reef-inspired house float.
So we're going to actually utilize the palm trees
that are actually in front of our house,
and we'll make little tiki huts.
Now there's a larger effort
to connect out-of-work artists with homeowners.
As soon as the city of New Orleans canceled the parades,
that caused a chain reaction
of laying off a bunch of artists.
So we launched it on December 4.
It's called Hire a Mardi Gras Artist.
We built a website that can take donations,
and every time that we raise another $15,000,
we are able to put a whole team of people to work.
Artists work with homeowners to choose the theme,
material, and a day to install the designs.
Which windows need to not be covered on the top,
these two front ones?
As long as the center ones can open somewhat,
I think that's fine.
Then the decorating begins,
like this "Golden Girls"-inspired house float created
by local artist group Stronghold Studios.
Oh, my God, Betty White looks unbelievable.
People that call us up, and they say,
"My theme is purple, green, and 'Golden Girls.'
I want all four Golden Girls.
There's this crazy chicken in my neighborhood,
I want him to be a part of it."
And then it just kind of snowballs from there.
The idea has been so successful
that artists are now struggling to keep up with the demand.
We're doing in two weeks what normally takes a year.
I think if I didn't sleep
from now until Mardi Gras and just worked
and worked and worked, it wouldn't be enough.
That's how much demand.
Now we went from no employees to we have anywhere
from six to eight employees here every single day,
six days a week now.
It's a surprise and a relief for many.
If you would have asked me in August,
I would have said there's
no way Mardi Gras's going to happen in 2021.
But Mardi Gras is a centuries-old festival
that's rarely ever canceled.
The celebrations are rooted in Christian traditions.
They're meant to mark the last day of Carnival
before the 40-day period
of fasting leading up to Easter.
New Orleans has been holding float parades
since at least the 1800s.
The celebrations had made it
through the most extreme weather conditions,
like Hurricane Katrina.
The city's coming back, and this just proves it.
It's only been canceled once
in over 40 years because of a police strike in the '70s.
Today, the party is a cultural phenomenon.
But 2020 was a wake-up call.
Mardi Gras celebrations turned New Orleans
into a coronavirus hotspot.
COVID-19 cases spreading fast after Mardi Gras.
Three thousand people infected.
Hospitals full.
The first confirmed case of COVID-19
in the state was from an individual who tested positive
in the New Orleans area
13 days after the end of the iconic party.
In November, the city announced
it was canceling 2021 parades altogether, a major loss.
The event can bring in $500 million to the local economy
and business owners felt the impact.
The cancellation of Mardi Gras this year is definitely
like losing the soul of the city.
There is going to be a loss of not having that revenue
at this time for the season of Mardi Gras.
But we hope that this is the only time
that we have to cancel Mardi Gras
and we don't have to do this again next year.
It's a devastating blow to a difficult year.
But the city is coming together to help those hurt the most.
From mid-March to December 1, we had one job.
So that money, we stretched it as far as we could,
and I think we had that hard conversation
on whether or not we should close our doors.
And then the next day,
we got the house floats calls started coming in.
So it's been a real reversal of fortune.
The Hire a Mardi Gras Artist program
and others put much-needed money back in artists' pockets.
We've created jobs for 40, 45 people.
We've raised over $200,000.
We have 20 projects that are funded,
and we're going to keep working to get them ready
for Mardi Gras, which is February 16.
And that's how New Orleans
is keeping Mardi Gras alive.
I think this year is the year to focus on the artwork.
This just gives us a unique opportunity
to elevate the artists
and to really show people what we can do,
and they can go see the work up close
and really appreciate how it's being made
and who's making it.
And so I think that's really powerful.