Lent is already well underway. The pleasure-filled bacchanal that is Fat Tuesday has come and gone. But it’s never too late to celebrate Chewbacchus, the coolest Star Wars-themed Mardi Gras festival in the Galaxy.
YouTuber Riain Rising recently shared a video detailing his February adventures at this year’s Mardi Gras Chewbacchus, including building a landspeeder float. Chewbacchus is an annual Carnival parade where fans of Star Wars and other scifi franchises come together to drink the sweet blue milk nectar of life. It’s full of floats, dance routines, and elaborate costumes... although you’re not allowed to dress as a unicorn or elf (sorry, those are the rules). They also crown a nerdy king or queen every year, and 2017’s was Ross Marquand of The Walking Dead.
New Orleans hosts several smaller parades in the weeks before Fat Tuesday, and they’re considered more local fare since it’s before the tourists start poring in. Chewbacchus is hosted every year by the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, or IKOC, which basically sounds like the coolest team name ever. It gets an average of at least 20,000 attendees per year, largely thanks to word of mouth (and IKOC’s clever guerrilla marketing tactics). Check out this year’s festivities, and start making travel plans for 2018.
[YouTube]