Crime worries underpin celebration as New Orleans Carnival season begins

The Baby Dolls make an entrance during the King’s Day celebration while kicking-off the official start of 2023 Carnival Season in New Orleans, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. (David Grunfeld/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

New Orleans has kicked off its annual Carnival season – a weeks-long celebration of street parties, lavish balls and colourful parades, complicated this year by concerns over crime and a depleted police force that last year forced a shortening of Mardi Gras parade routes.

City officials marked the pre-Lenten season’s start by dancing their way into an event amid brass band music, costumed revellers and giant figurines of jesters and fantasy characters at Mardi Gras World by the Mississippi River, where many parade floats are assembled and stored.