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How to Throw a
Mardi Gras Party
Gather your friends and bring out the purple, green and gold decorations - it's time to put together your own Mardi Gras party. Whether you were born and raised in New Orleans, but now (unfortunately) live somewhere else, or just wish you had the Big Easy in your blood, we're here to help you throw a Fat Tuesday bash your guests won't soon forget. The key ingredients? Food, music and fun. And oh yeah, lots of Mardi Gras trinkets.
 First off, you'll want to stock up on throws - the multi-colored beads and doubloons that parade revelers scream for. In fact, New Orleanians will go to great lengths to load themselves down with as much as they can catch. Since you probably don't have a float from which to throw the loot, (hey, it takes a year to build the more elaborate ones you see on TV), come up with some creative ways to reward your guests with throws. They shouldn't have to lift their shirts or drop their pants to be rewarded. Unless, of course, that's the kind of raucous party you're going for.
Have friends perform stupid human tricks, or set up a limbo contest - whatever works to get friends 'competing' for the coveted trinkets, beads and souvenirs. Or get everyone to cheer for those with the best costumes, and give the lucky winners the pick of the loot. Hint: for a different kind of throw, try your hand at decorating coconuts with brightly colored paint and glitter, and give them to guests as party favors. These are the treasured treats of Zulu.
When it comes to costumes, instruct all of your guests to show up in their favorite disguise. Rule #1: they must use their imaginations and their own two hands; after all, everybody knows the best costumes can't be bought at a store. Hint: current events and politics always seem to drive the best costumes seen on Mardi Gras Day.
 Next
step, music. When you live in the Crescent City, Mardi Gras
music fills the airwaves for several weeks leading up to Fat
Tuesday. For a taste, you can listen to the internet broadcast
at www.wwoz.org.
The web site for WWOZ 90.7 FM, a public radio station located
in New Orleans, Louisiana, features 24 hour blues, jazz,
cajun, zydeco, gospel, Brazilian, Caribbean and more. Whether
it's Dr. John, The Neville Brothers, Rebirth
Brass Band or Beau
Jocques and the Zydeco Hi-Rollers, it's time to get into
the carnival groove. So if you want to buy the kind of CDs
that'll make your Mardi Gras party rock, click
here.
And last but certainly not least, there's the food. No Mardi
Gras party would be complete without big bowls of gumbo,
shrimp etouffée,
jambalaya and thick, sweet slices of king
cake. Not to mention Bloody
Marys by the Pitcher, Sangrita
and Merry
Mary Punch.
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