Mardi Gras 2027: The Parade Schedule, the Route Closures and How to Plan Around Them

Short answer: Mardi Gras 2027 falls on Tuesday, February 9, 2027 — Fat Tuesday, the last day of Carnival and the day before Ash Wednesday. The season opens on Twelfth Night, January 6, which gives 2027 one of the shortest Carnival seasons in living memory at 34 days. The parades that matter for anyone moving around the city run across two stretches of the calendar: the first Uptown weekend, January 29 to 31, and the closing run from Wednesday, February 3 straight through to Mardi Gras Day on February 9. On those days the streets do not simply get busy. They close, on a published schedule, and the closures are what decide whether a vehicle can reach you at all.

Mardi Gras 2027: the date, the season and why it is short

Mardi Gras New Orleans states the date plainly: "Mardi Gras 2027 falls on Tuesday, February 9, 2027. Mardi Gras Day is February 9, 2027," and notes that the official start of Carnival season is Twelfth Night, January 6 (mardigrasneworleans.com). New Orleans & Company, the city's convention and visitors bureau, runs the same range as a banner across its Carnival guide — January 6 to February 9, 2027 (neworleans.com).

Why the date moves. Fat Tuesday is always the day before Ash Wednesday, and Ash Wednesday is always 46 days before Easter. Easter can fall on any Sunday from March 23 to April 25, which means Fat Tuesday can land on any Tuesday between February 3 and March 9 (mardigrasneworleans.com). In 2027 the arithmetic lands early, on February 9.

Why 34 days matters more than it sounds. Carnival 2026 ran 43 days and Carnival 2025 ran 58. The 2027 season compresses all of that into 34 — and as NOLA.com put it when the date was confirmed, "next year's Carnival is going to be a sprint" (nola.com).

A shorter season does not mean fewer parades. It means the same parades packed into fewer weekends, which is why the closing eight days run without a night off. For anyone planning a visit it is the single most useful fact in this guide: the busy nights in 2027 are busier than the same nights were in 2026, because there is less calendar to spread the crowds across.

The Mardi Gras 2027 parade schedule, day by day

Read this paragraph before the table, because it matters.

The 2027 schedule below is the parade calendar published by Mardi Gras New Orleans, and that publisher labels it tentative: "Most parade date and times below are currently estimates based on previous years. The parade lineup and schedules will not be fully confirmed until a few months before the festivities" (mardigrasneworleans.com). The City of New Orleans has not yet published its own 2027 parade list — its Mardi Gras page currently reads "Upcoming parades — Stay tuned!" (ready.nola.gov).

So: treat the plan below as the plan, not as a guarantee, and re-check in January. What does not change is the shape of the week, and that is what you actually book around.

Uptown New Orleans — the core schedule

The other routes that run on the same days

Krewe du Vieux, Chewbacchus, Barkus and 'tit Rəx are walking parades rather than float parades, and they matter for a different reason: they close small streets in the Marigny and the French Quarter rather than closing St. Charles. A walking parade can put a closure on a block you were counting on using.

One change worth tracking before February

Two entries in that table are contested in the public record. In July 2026, NOPD presented the City Council's Governmental Affairs Committee with proposed 2027 changes, including "Druids would begin at 5:00 p.m., D'État would move ahead of Hermes with a 5:30 p.m. start, Hermes would roll at 6:00 p.m., Morpheus would follow Hermes, and Tucks would begin at 1:00 p.m." (council.nola.gov).

That would move Hermes from 5:30 PM to 6:00 PM and Tucks from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, and would reorder the Friday, February 5 lineup so that d'Etat rolls first. The proposal also covers "adjustments to the Sparta and D'État parade formation routes" and "expanded no-parking enforcement in parade formation areas beginning four hours before parade start times."

The committee summary records a proposal, not a final schedule, and we could not find the 2027 motion that formally sets parade positions and start times — the way Motion M-26-50 did for 2026. Both versions are reported here rather than one being picked. If you are planning around Tucks on February 6 or Hermes on February 5, build in an hour of slack and confirm the time in the week of the parade.

The Uptown parade route, street by street

Almost every parade you have heard of runs the Uptown route. The City Council defines it by block range rather than by landmark, and the definition is the authoritative one:

Uptown Route A: the 900 through 1500 blocks of Napoleon Avenue, then the 100 through 4300 blocks of Saint Charles Avenue passing through Harmony Circle, then the 400 through 600 blocks of Canal Street, then the 100 through 400 blocks of Tchoupitoulas Street (council.nola.gov).

In plain terms, that is the route most visitors picture: Napoleon Avenue → Saint Charles Avenue → Canal Street → Tchoupitoulas Street. Saint Charles is the long leg, running roughly four miles from Napoleon to the turn at Canal. New Orleans & Company describes it the same way — "the main route is from Napoleon Avenue down Saint Charles Avenue in the Uptown Neighborhood to Canal Street" (neworleans.com).

The Council publishes seven Uptown variants, Routes A through G, which differ mainly in how they form up. Route C adds the 4400 through 5300 blocks of Magazine Street. Route D uses the 1600 through 2000 blocks of Napoleon. Route E starts out at the 6000 block of Tchoupitoulas and works through Henry Clay Avenue and Magazine before joining Napoleon. Routes F and G run the 1600 through 2900 blocks of Napoleon and then finish on Canal rather than Tchoupitoulas — which is how Rex and the parades behind it end, on Canal Street rather than at the river.

Where the route ends is not a detail. The Council's rule is explicit: "For any Krewe whose authorized parade route ends at Tchoupitoulas Street, all throwing must stop there, even if floats continue to the Convention Center. Any activity beyond Tchoupitoulas Street falls outside the parade route, and the City will not provide cleanup services past that point" (council.nola.gov).

For a pickup that matters in a practical way. Once the floats pass a given spot, the crowd on that block disperses within minutes and the street reopens. The route is not closed for the evening; it is closed for the parade. A pickup planned for 30 to 45 minutes after the last float clears your corner is a completely different proposition from one planned for the middle of the parade.

The Mid-City route, Endymion, and the downtown closure zone

Endymion is the parade that breaks the pattern. It rolls on Saturday, February 6 at 4:00 PM, it is one of the largest parades of the season, and it does not run the Uptown route.

Its path, per Mardi Gras New Orleans: it starts at City Park Avenue and Orleans Avenue, runs southeast down Orleans Avenue to North Carrollton Avenue, turns right onto Carrollton to Canal Street, turns left and travels Canal through Mid-City until Saint Charles Avenue, turns right onto Saint Charles and continues to Harmony Circle, goes around the circle until Howard Avenue where it turns left, takes Howard northwest to Loyola Avenue, turns right to Girod Street, turns left, and continues west on Girod until it reaches the Superdome, where it ends (mardigrasneworleans.com).

That last sequence — Howard Avenue, Loyola Avenue, Girod Street, and the blocks around the Superdome — is the part that catches people out. It is a long parade on a route that ends deep inside the Central Business District, on the doorstep of the one part of town where hotel traffic is heaviest.

The City Council's Mid-City route definition covers the same ground in block terms: the 4100 through 4700 blocks of Orleans Avenue, the 100 through 700 blocks of North Carrollton Avenue, the 700 through 4000 blocks of Canal Street, the 100 through 900 blocks of Saint Charles Avenue through Harmony Circle, the 700 through 1000 blocks of Howard Avenue, the 700 through 800 blocks of Loyola Avenue, the 1200 through 1400 blocks of Girod Street, and the 1500 through 1600 block of Dave Dixon Drive (council.nola.gov).

On "the CBD box." The term does not come from the city. The City of New Orleans publishes its downtown Carnival restrictions under the heading "French Quarter and Central Business District" and does not define a box-shaped boundary anywhere. The term traces to a 2017 arrangement in which Uber divided the Uptown area into a zone its drivers would serve and everywhere else — as NOPD described it at the time, "The Box, as defined by Uber, stretches from Napoleon Avenue to Canal Street and the river side of St. Charles Avenue to Tchoupitoulas" (nopdnews.com).

We searched the city's own guidance and could not find any current confirmation that this arrangement is still in force. So the honest answer is: the box is a useful way to picture the geography — Napoleon to Canal, river side of St. Charles to Tchoupitoulas — but it is not a city rule, and no current operator's zone map should be assumed from a nine-year-old announcement. What is a city rule is the closure mechanism described in the next section, and it applies to everyone.

The closure rules that actually change your pickup

This is the section worth reading twice, because these are the rules that decide whether a vehicle can reach you during Mardi Gras 2027.

The two-hour rule. "Streets along parade routes close to vehicles two hours before a parade begins," and "vehicular traffic will be restricted in the area beginning two hours prior to the start of parades" (ready.nola.gov). The police department "will close the route to vehicles" before parades begin or when crowd size warrants.

Parking is restricted on the route two hours before and two hours after. Parking is restricted along parade routes "two hours before and after parades" so that parade elements and sanitation crews can access the street (ready.nola.gov). On the Uptown route the prohibited-parking streets include Tchoupitoulas from Jackson to Nashville, Napoleon from Tchoupitoulas to South Claiborne, St. Charles from Napoleon to Canal, Tchoupitoulas from Poydras to Calliope, and Magazine from Napoleon to Upperline.

Large vehicles have a four-hour, two-block rule. "Large enclosed vehicles are prohibited from parking on public streets within two blocks of a route four hours before and after each parade" (ready.nola.gov). If your group travels in a motorcoach or a full-size bus, this is the single most important line on this page: it is four hours, not two, and it is two blocks off the route, not on it.

Endymion gets its own parking prohibition, starting at 6:00 AM. Parking is prohibited on either side of Canal Street from South Carrollton to Tchoupitoulas, Tchoupitoulas from Canal to Julia, Julia from Tchoupitoulas to Convention Center Boulevard, Convention Center Boulevard to Henderson Street, North Carrollton from Canal to Orleans Avenue, and Orleans Avenue from City Park Avenue to North Carrollton — "from 6 a.m. until two hours after the parade ends" (ready.nola.gov).

The French Quarter is restricted, not closed. "Only residents, employees, hotel guests, and taxis/TNCs will be allowed to drive vehicles into the French Quarter" within the perimeter of Iberville Street, Decatur Street, Dumaine Street, and Rampart Street (ready.nola.gov). The city's own operations release adds that "Taxi cabs, rideshare, limousines and small buses will be allowed to enter" (nola.gov).

A handful of Quarter blocks go fully vehicle-free. Bourbon Street from Canal to Dumaine, plus the 700 and 800 blocks of St. Ann, Orleans, St. Peter, Toulouse, St. Louis, Conti, Bienville and Iberville, are closed to vehicles overnight during the peak stretch (ready.nola.gov).

The city publishes safe crossing points on purpose — Poydras Street at St. Charles Avenue on the Uptown route, and Galvez Street at Canal Street for Endymion — "to allow pedestrians, bicyclists, and emergency vehicles to cross the parade route." Those are the official places where the route is designed to be permeable. They are also, for exactly that reason, the worst places to plan a vehicle pickup.

And one that catches locals too: do not park "within 20 feet of a crosswalk, intersection, or stop sign."

One caution about the city's own page. The specific date ranges printed alongside these rules on ready.nola.gov still carry the 2024 Carnival calendar. The rules are current; the dates around them are not. Plan from the rules and from the Mardi Gras 2027 calendar above, and check the city page again in January when it is refreshed for 2027.

Where a vehicle can meet you on a parade day

Here is the honest version: the City of New Orleans does not publish designated pickup or staging zones for Mardi Gras 2027. There is no official map of "meet your ride here." Anyone claiming otherwise is inventing it.

What the city publishes instead is directional, and it works: "Avoid the traffic headache by using alternatives to driving," and "Use for-hire transportation options like taxis, Uber or Lyft" (ready.nola.gov).

In practice, a workable meeting point on a Mardi Gras 2027 parade day has four properties:

• It is off the route by a block or two, not on it. Baronne Street and Prytania Street are the two most reliable Uptown-side options because they run parallel to St. Charles and stay outside the closure perimeter. Rideshare operators publish the same guidance to their own drivers — walk north to Baronne or south to Prytania before requesting a ride.
• It is a named address, not a description. "Outside the parade" is not a location. "The corner of Prytania and Seventh" is.
• It is on the far side of the parade from where you are going. Crossing the route on foot is easy at a crossing point and impossible elsewhere; crossing it in a vehicle during a parade is not possible at all.
• It is reachable by a street that stays open. Tchoupitoulas Street is the through-route that keeps working during Uptown parades, which is why it is the street operators fall back on when everything else is closed.

Your walking distance is the variable you control. Two blocks of walking at the start of the trip routinely saves twenty minutes of sitting in a vehicle at the end of it. This is the single highest-leverage decision a group makes on a parade day, and it costs nothing.

Two more things worth knowing:

On Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras, the entire city reroutes. The Regional Transit Authority terminates the Magazine line at Camp and Poydras inbound, starts and ends its airport line at Union Passenger Terminal on Loyola, and ends the St. Charles streetcar at Valance and St. Charles (norta.com). When the transit system's own fixed routes are landing at Union Passenger Terminal, that tells you something useful about which part of downtown stays reachable.

Canal Street is the boundary that costs the most. The Uptown route's Canal leg is the last to reopen and the one that separates downtown hotels from Uptown viewing spots. If your plan requires crossing Canal during a parade, your plan needs an hour of slack in it.

That is the reason our Mardi Gras transportation works on named meeting points off the route rather than on door-to-door pickup, and it is a large part of why event bookings are staffed around the closure schedule rather than around a flat arrival window.

Airport transfers during Mardi Gras: MSY timing

The good news first: the airport is outside every parade route, and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International is open 24 hours daily, including holidays (flymsy.com). The airport leg of a Mardi Gras 2027 trip is usually the least complicated part of it.

The complication is on the downtown end, where the same closures that affect everyone else also affect the vehicle coming to collect you.

MSY's own special-events departure guidance is a four-step countdown, and it is worth following literally on a Carnival departure day: four hours before departure, arrange your transportation or return the rental car; three hours before, check bags with your airline; two hours before, get in line at the TSA checkpoint; one hour before, be at the gate ready to board (flymsy.com).

The two-hour checkpoint target is the one to hold onto. On the busiest mornings of the year, a plan that assumes a 90-minute airport run from a downtown hotel is a plan built on a normal Tuesday, and Mardi Gras week does not contain any normal Tuesdays.

On arrival, the airport publishes a warning that is specific to this city: "Please do not accept solicitations to assist with transportation or baggage from anyone that is not properly badged," and "Always seek out airport employees with MSY ID badges for assistance." Solicitation of ground transportation at MSY is illegal (flymsy.com). In a Mardi Gras 2027 week when the city is full, an unbadged person offering a ride is the one situation where a visitor is genuinely at risk of being overcharged or worse.

On the downtown end, book the return leg before you need it. A departure on the Sunday or Monday of the closing weekend is competing with the largest inbound and outbound travel days of the season on the same streets. The fixed part — a vehicle staged outside the closure perimeter at an agreed time — is the part that works.

Route fees apply during event periods. The current figures live on the Mardi Gras service page, not in an article, because they change with the calendar and an article does not. If you are arriving by air and heading straight to a hotel, the airport side of the trip is handled on our New Orleans airport transportation page.

Hotel-zone timing: when to leave

The most useful number in this Mardi Gras 2027 guide is one you set yourself: what time the vehicle leaves.

Work backwards from the parade, not from the distance. On a normal evening these runs are short. On a parade day the same runs are two to three times longer, and the reason is always the same — the last mile is inside a closure perimeter that went up two hours before the first float.

Three rules sit underneath that table.

Nights are worse than days. The Mardi Gras 2027 evening parades — Muses on Thursday, Hermes and d'Etat on Friday, Endymion on Saturday, Bacchus on Sunday — put the closure window directly across the dinner and hotel-departure hours. A 6:00 PM parade means the route is restricted from 4:00 PM.

Mardi Gras Day is its own category. Zulu rolls at 8:00 AM and Rex at 10:30 AM, which means the Uptown route is restricted from early morning and Canal Street stays complicated for most of the day. Add 30 to 45 minutes to every estimate on February 9, and consider whether a midday movement is necessary at all.

Lundi Gras is the night people underestimate. Proteus and Orpheus roll back to back on Monday, February 8, and it is the last night before the biggest day of the season. It is busy in a way that a Monday usually is not.

Getting your group there, at any size

Group size is never the constraint. Jazzy Limousine & Shuttle runs sedans and SUVs for couples and small families, Executive Sprinters for mid-size parties, Executive Buses, and full motorcoaches — so a party of four and a party of forty are each a single booking with one contact and one manifest.

Mardi Gras 2027 is where that matters most, for three reasons specific to this event:

The closure perimeter splits groups up. Six separate rideshare requests during a parade are six drivers making six different decisions about a boundary that is still moving, and at least one of them will not be able to reach the meeting point. One vehicle, one driver, one named address removes that entire class of problem.

The two-hour parking rule does not apply to a vehicle that is never parked. A chauffeured vehicle that drops and collects is not competing for a parking space on a restricted street, and it is not subject to the four-hour, two-block rule that governs large vehicles left standing near a route.

The return leg is the hard leg. A group that leaves together in one vehicle leaves as soon as the last float clears the corner. A group that leaves in six vehicles leaves when the slowest one has found its driver.

If your group is large enough to travel by motorcoach, tell us early. February motorcoach capacity in New Orleans is committed well before the season starts, and the four-hour rule above means the staging plan for a large vehicle has to be designed rather than improvised.

Where to stay for Mardi Gras 2027

Where you stay for Mardi Gras 2027 changes the week more than anything else in this guide, because it changes how many closures sit between you and everything else.

CBD and Warehouse District. Walkable to the Canal Street end of the Uptown route and the closest zone to Endymion's finish at the Superdome. Also the first zone to sell out, and the one where a vehicle has the least room to manoeuvre during evening parades.

French Quarter. The best base if the trip is about the city as well as the parades, and the one zone with a formal vehicle rule: taxis, rideshare, limousines and small buses may enter the perimeter, private cars may not. That rule works in your favour.

Garden District and Uptown. You are inside the parade neighbourhood rather than travelling to it. Magnificent for the first weekend, less convenient for Endymion and for anything requiring a Canal Street crossing.

Metairie, Kenner and the airport corridor. 20 to 35 minutes out, materially cheaper, and the easiest zone to attach an airport transfer to. On parade nights the inbound leg is the one that tests the plan.

North Shore. The Causeway is the longest inbound leg on the board and the one that punishes a late start hardest. It is a reasonable base for a long stay and a poor one for a single-night parade run.

If the trip runs past the parades — and during Carnival it usually does — the hotel side and the cruise terminal side are handled together on our hotel and cruise port transfers page.

Booking Mardi Gras 2027

Mardi Gras 2027 is the busiest event on the New Orleans calendar by a wide margin, and it is the one with the least spare capacity, because the whole city is working the same two weeks.

Three things worth saying plainly.

First, the calendar decides the price, not the other way round. The earlier the booking, the better the options. Current event-period figures live on the Mardi Gras service page rather than in an article that will be stale by February.

Second, the outbound and return legs should be booked as one movement. Two separate bookings on a parade night means two drivers, two meeting points, and nobody who owns the evening — and on a night when the route closes at a published time, that gap is the difference between a plan and a scramble.

Third, if you are flying in, the airport leg and the parade leg are separate runs and should be booked as such, so that a vehicle meets the flight and then meets you again on the day you are going out to watch.

Tell us the date, the hotel zone, the headcount and which parade you are going to see, and the day arranges itself around three fixed points: a departure that beats the closure window, a named meeting point off the route, and a vehicle already waiting when the last float goes by.