Six Grand Marshals to Lead Southern Decadence Parade
Rachel Thompson, Romy Thompson, Sam Smith, Milan Nicole Sherry, Bobby Wagstaff and Sarah Manowitz will lead this year's Southern Decadence parade. It's the first time the festival has had six Grand Marshals at once, according to Hoodline, citing NOLA.com.
More than 44 groups step off from The Golden Lantern on Royal Street at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6. The French Quarter festival runs Sept. 3 through 7 under the theme Phoenix Rising: Together We Rise, per Hoodline's report.
The festival traces back to 1972. A costume party at a run-down Tremé cottage nicknamed Belle Reve drew about 50 friends dressed as their favorite Southern decadent, according to the French Quarter Journal, as cited by Hoodline. Frederick Douglas Wright became the festival's first official Grand Marshal in 1974, per the Official Southern Decadence Guide. The Sunday parade has launched from The Golden Lantern since 1981, when Grand Marshal V Robert King helped shift the event into a publicly celebrated gay festival, the guide states.
Romy Thompson and Rachel Thompson are married. This year they sent Decadence posters and invitations to every known lesbian bar in the country, Hoodline reports, noting New Orleans has no lesbian bars of its own.
Grand Marshals fund parade costs through more than 35 advance fundraisers, including drag shows, pool parties and bus trips to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Baton Rouge. Grand Marshal Sarah Manowitz set up a dunk tank on Bourbon Street on Aug. 16. She charged $20 to push the button and $5 per ball. The tank dunked roughly 10 to 15 people, and Manowitz herself went under almost 10 times, per the same account.
The parade is free to join, with marchers welcome alongside groups including Crescent City Leathermen, Queerly Beloved, the Pussyfooters and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. It proceeds down Royal Street and is expected to pass Corner Pocket, Crossing and The Page. The full route will be announced closer to parade time, according to NOLA.com as cited by Hoodline.
Southern Decadence ranks as New Orleans' third-largest annual event behind Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. It draws more than 250,000 participants and generates between $275 million and $380 million in economic impact each year, according to Ambush Magazine. This year's designated charitable beneficiaries include Women With A Vision, STEM NOLA, Big Easy Animal Rescue, Transcending Women and Black Pride NOLA, per Hoodline's report.
The festival has survived cancellations before. Official events were called off in 2005 for Hurricane Katrina, in 2008 for Hurricane Gustav, and in 2020 and 2021 for COVID-19 and Hurricane Ida, according to Wikipedia. Even then, small groups of residents held brief unofficial walking parades through the Quarter.