Where to ride Mardi Gras in the Bay Area

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If you know what it’s like to miss New Orleans, you know the transcendent feeling of getting up at dawn to dance in the streets with thousands of others in your most glamorous Mardi Gras Day outfit.

New Orleans people like to say, “It’s just Tuesday everywhere.” but there are enough NOLA expats here in the Bay Area, people with Louisiana roots, and people who just appreciate a good party, and Fat Tuesday (February 21) in the Bay might be a fitting consolation prize for the real ones.

From this weekend until next Tuesday, there are plenty of concerts, parties and parades to enjoy. Here are our top five options. Happy carnival!

For the 10th year, soul cuisine North Beach Tupelo and nearby sports bar LSU Northstar Cafe are hosting a Mardi Gras parade accompanied by MJ’s Brass Boppers, a local band that has opened to acts such as George Clinton and The Parliament Funkadelic and Trombone Shorty. Perhaps the closest you’ll find on the second line of the 7th arrondissement here in the bay, the festivities start at Northstar and end at Tupelo with Creole snacks and plenty of drinks. According to Tupelo’s Instagram, there will be a llama.

1560 Powell Street, San Francisco
Saturday, February 18 | 13:00–19:00
$12

The Fillmore area, a legendary neighborhood with deep southern roots, is one of the best places to visit on Mardi Gras Day, when a youth community group called the Village Project hosts an annual second line parade, masquerade ball and blues concert along the Fillmore Street corridor. Revelers will gather at the Fillmore Center Plaza for performances by blues singer Niecey LivingSingle and Cajun band Black Cat Zydeco. SambaFunk and David Hardiman’s 2nd Line Orchestra will then lead the Fillmore Street parade, culminating in a masquerade ball at the Origin Boutique nightclub.

1475 Fillmore Street, San Francisco
Tuesday, February 21 | 17:00-midnight
Free up to $100

These jazz artists began performing on the streets of San Francisco in the early 1970s, and this Fat Tuesday they’re returning to Oakland’s jazz hub, the Sound Room, for a night of New Orleans-inspired dance grooves.

3022 Broadway, Oakland
Tuesday, February 21 | 7-9:30 pm
$18-$22.50

For a Mardi Gras party more akin to the ones you’ll find in rural Acadiana, zaydeco band Aux Cajunals and soul funk band Billy, Willie & Lloyd will cook up something for all ages at the Berkeley stronghold of Ashkenaz next Tuesday. Violinist Susie Thompson of the Aux Cajunals studied with Cajun legend Dewey Balfe, so you know she’s real. Before the show, they will offer a dance lesson so everyone will be ready for the two-step. Bring your beads.

1317 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley
Tuesday, February 21 | 7 pm
$20-$25

New Orleans may be the birthplace of jazz, but thanks to SFJazz and dozens of other favorite places, today San Francisco is also the capital of jazz. The Jazz Mafia, a collective led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Adam Theis, lead the New Orleans annual tribute to New Orleans traditions, featuring Theis’ 10-piece brass band, Oakland-based soul vocalist Erin Honeywell, DJ Lady Fingaz, and more. .

1743 San Pablo Avenue, Auckland
Tuesday, February 21 | 7:30 p.m.
$15

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