For the scheduled times of each Zulu Character will appear at the Lundi Gras Festival, click here.

 The Lundi Gras Festival will add flavor to your day when the twelve food vendors kick up the Cajun aroma of crawfish pie, shrimp creole, file gumbo, alligator sausage, Jamaican chicken, crawfish bread, bar-b-que ribs, seafood pasta, catfish po-boys, peach cobbler, pecan pie, and many more New Orleans delicacies.

There are other attractions to whet your festive appetite. Everyone can join in a second line as the 2004 Zulu Mardi Gras Carnival Characters parade every hour through the thousands of revelers wearing their colorful flamboyant costumes.  Who knows...you may be one of the lucky ones to receive a treasured carnival throw, the Zulu Coconut! Also, witness the arrival of King and Queen Zulu 2004 by U.S. Coast Guard Cutter along with their entourage.

The non-stop live music, the tasteful New Orleans cuisine, and the Zulu African Village featuring arts & crafts will certainly provide the thousands of locals and visitors with a festive prelude to "Fat Tuesday"!

The Zulu's Lundi Gras Festival began in 1993 from an idea by George Rainey of Zulu and Karyn Noles of the Audubon Nature Institute.  The purpose of this activity was to have an event along the riverfront the Monday before Mardi Gras day involving Zulu's float characters and culminating with the arrival of King and Queen Zulu.  Thus the Lundi Gras Festival was born.

Since the beginning of the Lundi Gras Festival, the Zulu organization has been successful in maintaining an array of corporate sponsors for this event.  The list of corporate sponsors has increased substantially over the years.  Perhaps the most important preliminary evaluation of the idea of participating in this Lundi Gras for the sponsors, was the potential to generate sufficient visitors to the location of the festival.  Their vision of participating on new venture in the early stages of development of this festival has proven to be successful.

The Zulu Lundi Gras Festival drew an estimated 178,000 revelers to Woldenberg Park.  Research provided by the University of New Orleans states that the festival economic impact to the city of New Orleans is estimated to be $5.8 million for this one-day event.

The Zulu organization has continued throughout the years to develop new market caveats that will ensure the continuing success if the festival.  In 2002 the festival added a  "ZULU CHILDREN'S VILLAGE".  It is our intent to increase participation of families, local elementary, middle, and high school youth.  The ZULU CHILDREN'S VILLAGE will allow the youth of our community to display their talents through drama productions, music and art.