Days after a man killed 14 and injured dozens more in a terrorist attack on Bourbon Street, hundreds gathered blocks away in the French Quarter Monday evening (Jan. 6) to kick off Carnival season with the Société Des Champs Elysée and Krewe of Joan of Arc Twelfth Night parades.
With the events of New Year’s Day still fresh in people’s minds, French Quarter service industry workers expressed concern for the city, even as residents celebrated the start of the season.
Abby Byrd, a Kenner native who works at Muriel’s Jackson Square, said she feels “indifferent” about parades occurring a week after the New Year’s Eve attack. But she went on to say that she wished the city had not moved to get back to business quite so quickly.
“We didn’t really have a long mourning period,” Byrd said. “They keep calling us resilient when they don’t really give us a choice to be resilient.”
As far as the rest of parade season, Byrd said she still wants tourists to come to the city, as her livelihood depends on them. But she asked that visitors be sensitive to the people who work in the Quarter.
“I just want people to be respectful of locals and be mindful of [the] service industry,” Byrd said. “Be mindful of the guys who pick up the trash at the end of the night.”
PHOTOS: Twelfth Night parade in French Quarter rolls blocks away from site of terror attack
Shy Shakur, who works at The Little Italian Barrel near the French Market, was serving drinks to parade-goers before they set off on their route on Monday. He said the events of Jan. 1 could affect business in the Quarter during Carnival season.
“People are scared to come out,” Shakur said. “I can understand why they’re scared. But, you know, no people, no business, no money.”
David Jones was getting off work at the Omni Royal Orleans hotel in the French Quarter around the time that Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd of pedestrians on Bourbon Street.
Jones said he didn’t find out what happened until he saw it on the news. Despite the tragedy, he said on Monday that he was happy to see parades resume in the city.
“New Orleans is a city that no matter whatever we go through, we always bounce back,” Jones said. “We are a surviving city.”
The Joan of Arc parade, which rolled at 8 p.m. Monday along Decatur and Chartres streets, celebrated the life of its namesake, the patron saint of France who is often known as the unofficial patron saint of New Orleans. Angels, judges and different versions of Joan appeared throughout the parade. A vendor sold king cake along the route to raise money for the victims of the New Year’s Day attack.
“Being from this city, we’re tough. We love to party, we love to have fun, we love to enjoy ourselves, and we want everybody to do that with us,” said Kelly Henderson, who attended the Joan of Arc parade. “So with everything that happens, we feel like it’s not gonna be enough to stop us from being us.”
Henderson was at the parade with Lin Lewis, who works as a bartender on Bourbon Street and was at work the night of the attack.
“I think that with any job there are risks and no matter where you work and what you do, there’s a risk to everything in life,” Lewis said. “We all have the same probability to have things happen to us at work, no matter how bad it is or how good it is. Anything can happen.”