Mardi Gras in the Making: Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World

People are getting into the spirit of Mardi Gras early this year. Parades begin rolling as soon as January 6, and the whole city is charged with excitement during the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras. Locals are planning parties, organizing krewes, and putting together costumes; the smell of good food fills the neighborhoods along the parade route, and peals of laughter and raucous conversation trickle out into the streets as the nights get longer and the music gets louder. Blaine Kern’s shimmering, brightly colored floats begin their annual promenades across the Mississippi River Bridge, these fantastical figures making a striking string of chimerical silhouettes in the twilight as they float towards the roar of the crowds in Downtown New Orleans.

As you walk down St. Charles Avenue, feathered headdresses nod and flutter, silhouetted by the lighted windows of elegant Mardi Gras soirées. Revelers dressed in evening gowns and tuxedos one evening may be done up like blue roof babes, free mammogram machines, and local politicians the next day. At one notoriously wild ball held at Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World a few years ago, a naked woman with a mane of long blond hair arrived riding a white horse. Though this quixotic Lady Godiva was enthusiastically granted entrance to MOM’s ball in the nude, the horse was not (he wasn’t in costume). Costuming is fiercely encouraged during carnival; at some parties, such as MOM’s ball, it is required.

While the locals are getting ready for the parades to roll by their houses, the staff over at Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World is preparing to put on the show. They are the makers of the magic, the creative minds behind such Mardi Gras mammoths as the Leviathan, the giant King Kong family, and the thousands upon thousands of themed parades. This January, they are putting the final touches on the floats, hosting fantastic balls, and showing visitors what the carnival season is all about. These fantastic parties would not be possible if it wasn’t for the man we call Mr. Mardi Gras, a local character whose dream has made carnival magic. “This is where Mardi Gras is made,” explains Blaine Kern. Blaine Kern Artists was founded in 1947 when Kern, with the help of a small staff of family and friends, took on one float for the Algiers Krewe of Alla. After this success, he entered the world of Mardi Gras and never looked back, his business growing exponentially as more people noticed his extraordinary, inventive work.

Today, Kern Studios produces roughly 80 percent of the Mardi Gras parade floats for New Orleans, and the Kern Sculpture Company creates props, sculptures, and other 3-D images for casinos, theme parks, and businesses worldwide. Kern’s sons, who grew up playing hide and seek in the float dens, now run the separate factions of the business that cater to tourists visiting Mardi Gras World, organize extravagant themed parties, and design and produce floats, props, and sculptures.

Each year, over 150,000 visitors tour the carnival dreamland at Mardi Gras World, which has been open to the public since the World’s Fair in 1984. “It had always been a secretive group of dens where my family builds the most incredible sculpted props and floats in the world, but there was so much curiosity and world interest that we opened it up to tours and parties, and we’ve never looked back,” says Kern. The float dens are large warehouses filled with magnificent floats and wild figures; bits and pieces of these sculptures are also lined up beside the finished products. The disembodied heads of famous figures like Louis Armstrong, Salvador Dali, and Harry Connick Jr. stare across the warehouse at the Endymion’s giant Leviathan float, the Bacchsaurus, and King Kong himself. It feels as though you are walking through a big toy box; you especially feel small when you see that your head is just about the size of one of Kong’s baby toes.

The journey to Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World is an adventure in itself. Visitors can take a free ferry ride across the mighty Mississippi to Algiers, where Mardi Gras World shuttle buses are waiting. The shuttle bus whisks you along the bumpy avenues of the picturesque riverfront neighborhood, lined with leaning shotgun houses, over to the Mardi Gras World warehouses located next to the levee. The tour begins with hot coffee and delicious cinnamon-flavored king cake, and you are invited to try on headdresses, sequined Krewe smocks, and masks. A video explains the background behind Mardi Gras and the Kern’s legacy, and then the tour guides start the lively procession through the float dens.

“It’s Mardi Gras all year round here, and we looooove to show off!” Kern chuckles. “We invite everyone to bring their cameras and take pictures of themselves with creatures and gigantic sculpted images that are absolutely awesome. Don’t DARE forget your camera!”

The artists are also at work while the tours are in progress, and it is fascinating to see how the pieces are made. In the early years of Mardi Gras, papier mache was predominately used to create the floats and props, but it doesn’t weather well, so many of the latest sculptures are made with fiberglass and other, more durable materials. Kern’s artists are also economic, reusing props in inventive ways from one year to the next. Some are simply draped with different “clothes,” made of bubble wrap, Styrofoam, and paper, while others are taken apart and pieced together to form new, wacky characters.

During the day, the carnival dens are toured by visitors and used by the artists, but at night, they come alive with the bustle of festivities. Imagine dining on Oysters Rockefeller seated next to Baby Kong and the head of JFK, or dancing to the Roots around a giant alligator float. For 40 to 4,000 partygoers, Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World knows how to throw a party, and that’s not even counting Mardi Gras itself. With world-class chefs, a creative events staff, and an unforgettable setting, Meetings and Conventions Magazine named it “One of the Top Ten Themed Venues in the World.”

As a veteran bead-snatcher, coconut-oogler, and all around Mardi Gras girl, I thought I had seen it all, but boy was I wrong. For those who have seen a hundred parades or none at all, Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World is an adventure and a learning experience. The party never stops there, and that is true Mardi Gras spirit, so head over to Mardi Gras World and laissez le bon temp roulez!✦