Southern Decadence is in the French Quarter this weekend and what began as a small costume party among friends in the 1970’s has grown into one of the top five tourist events in the city of New Orleans.
The weekend celebrations draw around 200,000 visitors celebrating the LGBTQ community and the weekend-long celebration typically generates more than $200 million each year.
“Not only does it bring in an incredible amount of money and cashflow to the city, it brings a very diverse crowd. And New Orleans is known for its hospitality and welcoming the LGBT community like this, where gay pride tends to be a community of New Orleans, this is really national,” one attendee said.
Sunday is the annual parade and it starts on Decatur and Barracks Street. It then wraps through the French Quarter before ending near Bourbon and Dumaine Street.