It may seem odd to be dusting off your party frocks six months before the big event, but this bash is bigger than most - and you've got to get in early.
New Orleans' carnival season begins on Twelfth Night (January 5) and runs for at least six weeks until Ash Wednesday. Although Mardi Gras is used to refer to the whole season, 'Fat Tuesday' is actually the climax of a marathon of street revelry, parties, parades and masked balls.
Mardi Gras arrived with French colonists in New Orleans in the 1740s, the idea being to celebrate the coming of Lent with a costume feast. At the same time, slaves carried on with their African and Caribbean raves. All three eventually grew into one riotous whole.
Next year's Mardi Gras falls - or ends - on February 28. Hotels and flights start filling up quickly as autumn arrives, so book early (many reservations are made a year in advance) if you want to strut your stuff down Bourbon Street. Of course, New Orleans is open the rest of the year too. But Mardi Gras is definitely the highlight. Two o'clock in the morning at the Cafe du Monde is perhaps the best time and place to take a break from the all-night Bourbon Street party and indulge in a snack of icing sugar-deluged beignets (fried Creole pastries) and a cafe au lait. Music from bands playing rock, jazz, blues and zydeco spills from wall-to-wall clubs and pubs. People throng the street drinking large, lethal concoctions with names such as Hurricane (sweet, blue and rum-based), many pre-blended as garish alcoholic slushies.
New Orleans is one of two cities in the US (the other is Las Vegas) where it's legal to drink on the streets (from plastic cups, not bottles or cans, and only if you're at least 21). You can dance inside any venue for the price of a drink - or outside if you're sated.
The place has two common nicknames: the Crescent City, because it sits in a curve of the Mississippi; and the more familiar Big Easy. The latter dates from a dance hall by that name that was popular in the early 1900s. Later, the name came to be used for the city as a whole, referring to the laid-back and liberal lifestyle for which 'N'Awlins' is known.