2002 Mardi Card cover by Bunny Matthews
An incisive distillation in a handy printed format,
but the Internet
offered a glimmer of hope for something potentially more exciting.
ABOUT MARDI GRAS UNMASKED AND OUR MISSION
Mardi Gras Unmasked is the hip, underground guide to all things Mardi Gras in New Orleans. From fabulous original video and photo galleries to interactive trivia challenges and clever Carnival widgets for your Facebook page; from handy parade maps to incisive, carefully researched takes on Mardi Gras traditions and local customs; from the lowdown on offbeat happenings to practical, insider’s advice on how to get the most out of the festivities: Mardi Gras Unmasked brings the rich, eye-popping panorama of Carnival in New Orleans right to your desktop, iPhone or mobile device!
Mardi Gras Unmasked began as an offshoot of a pocket fold-out guide to Mardi Gras. Introduced in 1997, The Mardi Card included street maps, parade routes, listings and locations of live music venues, a detailed rundown of Carnival-related events and activities that were accessible to the public, plus Mardi Gras-related exhibits and attractions, a glossary of terms, an FAQ and information about how to catch a ride on a Mardi Gras parade float. In short, a convenient distillation of essential information including insights into grassroots rituals and “fringe” Carnival groups often overlooked by other media.
Our modus operandi was—and still is—based on the premise that Mardi Gras could be experienced on many different levels and was not so much an “event” as a cultural phenomenon, expressed through a range of art forms and a dizzying amalgamation of happenings and habits. On the margins—beyond the fancy-dress balls, glitzy parades and flesh-baring exhibitionism on Bourbon Street—is a veritable cornucopia of “unofficial” processions and presentations that, collectively, represent an authentic and compelling expression of indigenous folkways.
We still strive to provide the inside skinny on navigating the amorphous, multifaceted extravaganza that is Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
FEMA trailer decorated for Mardi Gras
The Mardi Gras spirit is associated with optimism and
positive thinking,
as was demonstrated by the heroic determination of New Orleanians,
in spite of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, to successfully
stage Mardi Gras in 2006-which helped the city believe in itself again.
TRANSITIONING TO THE INTERNET
When New Orleans Times-Picayune, in 1998, described The Mardi Card as a “Carnival Hip Sheet…. as cool as it is convenient,” Mark Sottek—a local entrepreneur making a name for himself in e-commerce and Web design—took notice. A subsequent meeting over beers at the St. Charles Tavern between Sottek and The Mardi Card’s Graham Button, a former writer and editor for Forbes magazine, led to the launch of MardiCard.com before Mardi Gras 1999. (Sottek and Button are now co-owners of Mardi Gras Unmasked LLC, a Louisiana limited liability corporation.)
Initially conceived as an online marketing vehicle for The Mardi Card, the site expanded along with the scope of our editorial efforts, becoming an outlet for documenting the festivities through photography and reportage. The Mardi Card ceased publication after Mardi Gras 2002. By then, MardiCard.com had morphed into MardiGrasUnmasked.com. The Internet offered not only the obvious advantage of reaching a broader audience in a more cost-effective and timely way, but also a glimmer of hope for something potentially more exciting. We started shooting and archiving video, envisioning a day when technology would make it possible to present Mardi Gras as an immersive online experience.
In truth, Mardi Gras Unmasked was more a labor of love than a business—fueled in part by an appreciation for the wisdom of fools and the words of the great New Orleans writer Robert Tallant.
“I think if there is any world left in which human beings still laugh and still, even on rare occasions, have fun, there will be Mardi Gras, and that it will live through whatever catastrophes occur…,” Tallant, in his 1947 book Mardi Gras…As It Was, opined. He went on to observe that, “Men cease to laugh only when they are very ill or when they have become beasts…. That is why Mardi Gras is not a trivial matter but a very important one. In a way it is a symbol of the art of being human, and wherever people are still human, wherever they still enjoy living, it will exist in some form.”
Mardi Gras Baby Dolls in the 9th Ward, on Fat Tuesday 2009
As the civil ritual that best exemplifies the cultural
richness of
New Orleans, Mardi Gras has everything from glitzy thematic
parades with marching bands and fantastic floats to spontaneous
eruptions of dance and joie de vivre in the street; from debutante tea
parties and elaborately choreographed balls to offbeat expressions
of indigenous grassroots culture on neighborhood back streets.
CHANNELING THE TRUE SPIRIT
The catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, having put the hurt on so many torchbearers of New Orleans culture, caused us to refocus our efforts. No longer could we take the city’s unique heritage and vernacular traditions for granted. And no longer could we abide the distorted projections of New Orleans and Mardi Gras in the mass media.
New Orleans is not a city overwhelmed by poverty and dysfunction, abandoned to gun-toting thugs. And as much as the national media likes to traffic in titillation, playing up the risqué side of Mardi Gras revelry, the gala has in fact retained much of its traditional family orientation and—as the civil ritual that best exemplifies the city’s astounding cultural richness—helped New Orleans overcome the trauma of Katrina and believe in itself again.
We believe in the true spirit of Mardi Gras: an optimistic and enduring human capacity for merriment and make-believe, for mirthful mockery and the creative indulgence of whimsy, as expressed through a remarkable array of home-grown customs and traditions. To optimally showcase this spirit, and to more effectively stimulate and deepen the public’s appreciation of Mardi Gras as a cultural attraction, Mardi Gras Unmasked had to become not just a compelling homage but also a sustainable business.
That means partnering with sponsors who support the mission of Mardi Gras Unmasked—which is to celebrate and sustain the diversity, traditions and artistry associated with the New Orleans Mardi Gras experience—and whose underwriting makes possible our presentation of that experience in an online environment that is fun, engaging and free of advertising clutter.
We seek relationships with businesses and organizations that support post-Katrina recovery efforts and the cultural economy of New Orleans and Louisiana, and offer products, services and programs that fit with the content and mission of Mardi Gras Unmasked.
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