New Or­leans’ an­nu­al Car­ni­val sea­son en­tered its ebul­lient crescen­do Tues­day with thou­sands of rev­ellers gath­er­ing in the French Quar­ter and lin­ing miles of pa­rade routes in a city­wide Mar­di Gras cel­e­bra­tion un­der­pinned this year by vi­o­lent crime con­cerns and po­lit­i­cal tur­moil.

Cel­e­bra­tions be­gan be­fore dawn in some parts of the city. TV crews cap­tured im­ages of The North Side Skull and Bones gang — skele­ton-cos­tumed rev­ellers — spread­ing out through the Treme area to awak­en peo­ple for Mar­di Gras. As the sun rose, peak­ing through breaks in the cloudy sky, pa­rade watch­ers were al­ready claim­ing spots along the St. Charles Av­enue pa­rade route. Bar­be­cue smells waft­ed through the Cen­tral Busi­ness Dis­trict.

Rev­ellers were un­de­terred by vi­o­lence that marred a glitzy week­end pa­rade. Gun­fire that broke out dur­ing a pa­rade Sun­day night left a teenag­er dead and four oth­ers in­jured, in­clud­ing a 4-year-old girl. Po­lice quick­ly ar­rest­ed Man­sour Mbodj, 21, for il­le­gal­ly car­ry­ing a weapon, then up­grad­ed the charge to sec­ond-de­gree mur­der.

Of­fi­cials stressed Mon­day that the shoot­ing was an iso­lat­ed event.

“It’s dis­cour­ag­ing, but it’s not go­ing to stop me from com­ing,” said Roz Walk­er, 55. She and her friend Tra­cy Dun­bar are Ba­ton Rouge res­i­dents who were among the crowd await­ing the pa­rades of the Zu­lu So­cial Aid and Plea­sure Club and the Rex Or­ga­ni­za­tion. They have been vis­it­ing New Or­leans on Mar­di Gras for decades.

“In our 40-plus years of com­ing to Mar­di Gras we’ve nev­er been in­volved in a sit­u­a­tion at all,” she said.

First-time Mar­di Gras par­tic­i­pant Ken Tray­lor of Hous­ton had heard about the shoot­ing, but shrugged it off. “I just think you have to be care­ful with your sur­round­ings,” he said. “Things hap­pen nowa­days every­where.”

Crime has con­tributed to dis­sat­is­fac­tion with New Or­leans May­or La­Toya Cantrell. She won re-elec­tion eas­i­ly in 2021, but has suf­fered a myr­i­ad of po­lit­i­cal prob­lems since, in­clud­ing crit­i­cism about crime, the slow pace of ma­jor street re­pairs and ques­tions over her per­son­al use of a city-owned French Quar­ter apart­ment.

A re­call pe­ti­tion launched last year is near­ing a Wednes­day dead­line. One of the or­ga­niz­ers, Eileen Carter, said she be­lieves the move­ment has enough sig­na­tures, but will make a last-minute push.

“We’re go­ing to have peo­ple can­vass­ing the pa­rade routes,” Carter said. “That’s been re­al­ly help­ful to us.”

Fu­elling the po­lit­i­cal tu­mult: Cantrell was cap­tured in a so­cial me­dia video ges­tur­ing with her mid­dle-fin­ger as a pa­rade passed by a city re­view­ing stand over the week­end. What sparked the ges­ture was un­clear. The may­or’s press of­fice did not re­spond to a re­quest for com­ment from The As­so­ci­at­ed Press. A state­ment giv­en to The Times-Picayune/The New Or­leans Ad­vo­cate shed lit­tle light.

“Mar­di Gras is a time where satire and jest are on full dis­play,” spokesper­son Gre­go­ry Joseph said in a pre­pared state­ment. “The city has been en­joy­ing a safe and healthy Car­ni­val,” the state­ment said, adding that the may­or was look­ing for­ward to con­tin­u­ing the cel­e­bra­tion.

Mar­di Gras, or Fat Tues­day, is the cul­mi­na­tion of Car­ni­val sea­son, which of­fi­cial­ly be­gins each year on Jan. 6, the 12th day af­ter Christ­mas, and clos­es with the be­gin­ning of Lent on Ash Wednes­day.

New Or­leans’ rau­cous cel­e­bra­tion is the na­tion’s most well-known, but the hol­i­day is al­so cel­e­brat­ed through­out much of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Mo­bile, Al­aba­ma, lays claim to the old­est Mar­di Gras cel­e­bra­tion in the coun­try. —NEW OR­LEANS (AP)

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Sto­ry by KEVIN MCGILL | As­so­ci­at­ed Press