New Orleans’ smallest Mardi Gras parade. ‘tit Rex, will roll on Feb. 17, 2019, six days earlier than expected. The politically pointed, adult shoe-box parade will also take place on Sunday instead of Saturday as it has in past years. Finally, there will be a time change. ‘Tit Rex’s 2019 parade will start on St. Roch Avenue at 4:30 p.m. instead of 5 p.m.
The changes to the popular parade are part of the city’s effort to take pressure off of the New Orleans Police Department during Carnival season. As the downtown foot parades such as Chewbacchus and ‘tit Rex have grown in popularity, they have taxed the NOPD, which also must provide security for Uptown parades on the same nights. With limited resources, the city has decided to move the foot parades to earlier dates.
In past years we would have looked for ‘tit Rex to take place on Feb. 23. Krewe president Caesar Meadows said that the krewe had hoped the city would allow them to keep their usual slot two Saturdays before Mardi Gras, because their tiny size required a smaller police escort. But city officials insisted on the move.
Meadows said the mini parade will now take place on the day after Krewe du Vieux and krewedelusion roll through the Bywayer and Marigny neighborhoods, so he laughingly predicts there may be a mellower, more hungover ‘tit Rex crowd than usual.