NEW ORLEANS — Leave it to New Orleans to take a practical Carnival ritual and turn it into something, ahem… with other connotations.
The Friday before Carnival, the Royal Sonesta hotel carries out what is referred to as the “Greasing of the Poles.”
The event drew quite a crowd Friday with a celebrity panel of judges and contestants, which this year included WWL-TV Traffic Reporter April Dupre.
The ritual, said to be in its 49th year, is done to keep overzealous revelers from trying to scale the poles, making for a dangerous situation.
Of course, with everything Carnival in New Orleans, the event has now become an annual ‘contest’ with ‘contestants’ lubing up the poles in everything from efficient to strongly suggestive manners.