Donna, Randy, Steph and Mike Brown had set up a shady spot in Lafayette Square facing St. Charles Avenue late Thursday as they waited for Chaos, Babylon and Muses to roll.
It was husband-and-wife Mike and Steph Brown’s first time at Mardi Gras. It was Donna Brown’s eighth time. She’d convinced her in-laws to tag along to check out the two things that keep her coming back to New Orleans.
“The food and the parades,” Donna Brown said.
The Browns are among the thousands of revelers descending on New Orleans this weekend for the final days of parades, parties and festivities that will mark the culmination of Carnival 2026.
So far, data suggests, the city’s biggest annual celebration is attracting healthy crowds, who are filling local hotel rooms and short-term rental units and packing parade routes.
Occupancy at the city’s roughly 26,000 hotel rooms in the French Quarter and downtown is expected to average around 90% this weekend, on the heels of two busy nights last weekend, according to the city’s tourism promotion agency, New Orleans & Co. Individually, some hotel operators report near full occupancy.
“This weekend is chock-a-block,” said Chris Valentino, whose family owns six downtown hotels and operates parade stand seating. “We have holes here and there, but no length-of-stay availability.”
But the crowds that have lined St. Charles Avenue and roamed downtown streets in recent days haven’t translated into big revenue gains for everyone. While some local businesses say they’ve gotten a boost from Carnival sales, others report a slow start to the season.
Allison and Glenn Charles, whose growing portfolio of restaurants includes the recently opened House of Buns on Bourbon Street, were expecting bigger crowds than they’ve seen so far, which is potentially troubling.
“It really sets the tone for the year,” Allison Charles said. “If Mardi Gras is strong, it can offset our slower months.”
Strong showing by the metrics
Officials with New Orleans & Co. say it’s too soon to say for sure how the season will shake out, as last weekend’s occupancy rates aren’t in. And officials at Louis Armstrong International Airport were unable to provide information on passenger counts.
Based on reported occupancy projections from downtown hotels for the coming weekend, however, 2026 appears to be on par with Mardi Gras 2025, when hotel occupancy averaged 87% for the five-night weekend and 95% on Saturday.
During the five-night celebration in 2024, by comparison, hotel occupancy averaged 81% and never even reached 90%.
A search of major downtown hotels Thursday showed few properties have available rooms this weekend. Those that do command rates of $500 per night or more.
The city’s 6,000 short-term rental units also appear near capacity. A check of the Airbnb website Thursday listed fewer than 150 available units.
“We seem to be facing what are traditionally high levels of occupancy for the Mardi Gras weekend,” said New Orleans & Co. President and CEO Walt Leger, III. “If anything, we’re expecting number to go up a little because of President’s Day weekend, which may enable people to extend their stays by a day.”
Ticket sales at parade stands, another bellwether of the season’s health, also appear to be trending in a positive direction, according to Valentino, whose family also operates six sections of grandstand seating and the stands across from Gallier Hall. Spots for all but a few parades are sold out.
Though crowds in 2025 and 2026, so far, are up over 2024, they’re still below pre-pandemic levels, when Mardi Gras revelers regularly took up 95% or more of the city’s hotel rooms during the five-day weekend.
New Orleans & Co. has been working to return crowds to those record levels, hiring influencers and bringing journalists to the city for the festivities to tell the stories of New Orleans Mardi Gras to the world.
Uptown vs. French Quarter
The afternoon before the city’s first float parades were set to roll last week, Bourbon Street was abuzz with the usual blend of tourists draped in Mardi Gras beads, musicians hauling equipment and tarot card readers setting up folding tables.
At Jezebel’s, a vintage clothing and costume shop on the corner of Bourbon Street and Ursulines Avenue, artist Melody Morrill was alone, waiting for customers who didn’t come.
She attributed to the slower activity to several factors, including frigid weather earlier in February and the presence of National Guard troops, which she believes have scared some tourists and locals away.
Restaurateur Dickie Brennan said massive road and sewer construction projects on St. Peter and Decatur streets have disrupted business at his French Quarter restaurant, Tableau.
Nearby restaurants, shops and tour operators have also complained for weeks about slow sales.
Perceptions about public safety, a year after the Jan. 1 ramming attack on Bourbon Street, have also contributed to sluggish activity, they say, at a time when tourism overall has been down due to economic uncertainty and the Trump administration’s trade war with Canada, a longtime trading and cultural exchange partner.
“The French Quarter has to build back,” Brennan said. “We are not back.”
Elsewhere across the city, activity has been brisk, including at Brennan’s Uptown restaurants, he said. And the Uptown parade route appeared to be as crowded last weekend, for the first three days of parades, as it traditionally has been on Mardi Gras weekend.
“I’ve never seen St. Charles as packed as it was last weekend,” he said. “Uptown was crazy, busier than normal.”
Fleurty Girl owner Lauren Haydel, whose popular apparel chain has several locations across the metro area, including Uptown and in the French Quarter, said some of her stores have performed better than others.
“We’re holding our own this year,” she said. “For us, last year was better because the season was three weeks longer, so we had time to sell more stuff.”