• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • All Articles
  • Arts & Culture
  • Health
  • News
    • News
    • Announcements
    • Obituaries
    • The Official Dish
  • Opinions
  • Horoscopes
  • PODCAST
  • Subscribe

Ambush Magazine

The Official Gay Magazine of the Gulf South™

  • Read All Articles
  • Print Archive
  • Old Archived Site
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise

Southern Decadence 2020 Update: The Southern Decadence That Wasn’t

August 28, 2020 By Frank Perez

In a normal year, this column would introduce you to the year’s Southern Decadence Grand Marshals. But as we all know, 2020 is anything but normal.  With the bars closed and City Hall not issuing parade permits, Southern Decadence 2020 has effectively been canceled.  Or has it?

2019 Southern Decadence Grand Marshals
2019 Southern Decadence Grand Marshals

That question has generated a lot of discussion on several Southern Decadence Facebook pages—and not without controversy.  Decadence devotees from around the country, and some who have never attended but want to, have asked if it’s worth coming to New Orleans this year.  The vast majority of responses, posted mostly by locals, is an overwhelming “No.  Stay home.”  Still others, from out of town, have expressed regret about not attending this year but vow to return next year.

Southern Decadence means different things to different people.  To purists, it’s the traditional Sunday parade.  To out-of-towners, it’s a chance to get out of their hometowns and cut loose.  To bar-owners and their staffs, it’s a time to work really hard and make a lot of money. 

Advertisement

The financial loss of not having Southern Decadence is profound.  The Labor Day extravaganza usually attracts upwards of 250,000 visitors.  In recent years, the economic impact of Southern Decadence has exceeded $300 million.  Hardest hit are the gay bars, many of which depend on the weekend to generate significant portions of their annual revenue, and their staffs—managers, bartenders, barbacks, DJ’s, dancers, security—whose income over the weekend can easily exceed what they would make in a month.

But not this year.  With bars closed because of the pandemic and large gatherings, even private ones, limited, some bars and entertainers have planned virtual, on-line events, and as successful as those may be, it will be different. 

And it will be historic.  Although Southern Decadence has been “canceled” before (in 2005 and 2008 because of hurricanes), this is the first time it has been canceled because of a pandemic.  And unlike before, this year, all the bars are closed.  If the bars were open, even for to go drinks only, an informal bar crawl would have been possible.  That would have been a return to Southern Decadence’s roots in the early years, before parade permits and tens of thousands of revelers packing the bars for days.

Advertisement

So what will Southern Decadence look like this year?  It will look like it did the very first year it was celebrated.  This year is a return not to its roots, but its very conception.

Southern Decadence began in 1972 with a group of friends who playfully called themselves the “Decadents.”  This core group included Michael Evers, his boyfriend David Randolph, Frederick Wright, Maureen and Charlie Block, Robert Laurent, Tom Tippin, Robert King, and Robert Gore, Preston Hemmings, Bruce Harris, Kathleen Kavanaugh, David Red, Ed Seale, Judy Shapiro, and Jerome Williams. All were young, mostly in college or recently graduated, and counted among themselves male female, black and white, and gay and straight.

Many people are aware Southern Decadence began as a going away party for Michael Evers and a welcome party of sorts for Maureen, but what is not as well known is that there were actually two parties.  The “Decadents” met regularly at Randolph and Evers’ home in the Treme, which they dubbed “Bell Reve” after the plantation Blanche DuBois lost in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Sunday Night Bourre (a popular card game in South Louisiana) and croquet games were a staple of the Decadents’ social life, as was gathering at Matassa’s bar before a night of carousing in the Quarter.

Advertisement

As Labor Day 1972 approached, Randolph, who was roughly ten years older than Evers, had to leave town on family business.  Wright was returning from Chicago to visit his good friend Evers.  Maureen kept complaining there was nothing to do.  School would be starting soon and an end summer party was in order.  The Decadents planned a costume party on the Sunday before Labor Day.  It was a fun party marked by spiked punch and a lot of drug use, especially marijuana and LSD.

A few weeks later, Evers left to join Randolph in Michigan.  Robert Laurent designed and sent out invitations that encouraged all to come dressed as their favorite Decadents to another party to say goodbye to Evers.  About fifty people attended the party. And that was how Southern Decadence got started.  It was a house party among friends.

Filed Under: Featured, Moments in Queer New Orleans History

Related Posts

Armeinius Turns 50
Bienville’s Wet Dream
12th Night & the Mystik Krewe du Rue Royale Revelers

Primary Sidebar

Connect & Join the Conversation

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Recent Print Editions

  • Volume 38 Issue 17
  • Volume 38 Issue 16
  • Volume 38 Issue 15
  • Volume 38 Issue 14
  • Volume 38 Issue 13
  • Volume 38 Issue 12
  • Volume 38 Issue 11
  • Volume 38 Issue 10
  • Volume 38 Issue 05
  • Volume 38 Issue 04

Recent Articles

  • The LGBTLOL Queer Comedy Fest Returns to New Orleans
  • The Rockford Files: Waiting for Life to Begin
  • Trodding the Boards May 9, 2025
  • Queer Arts as Resistance
  • Ambush on the Road – A Gay in the Garden State

Experience Gay New Orleans

  • Gay New Orleans
  • Gay Mardi Gras
  • Gay Easter Parade
  • New Orleans Pride
  • Gay Appreciation Awards
  • Southern Decadence
  • Gay Halloween

Categories

  • A Community within Communities
  • Announcements
  • Arts & Culture
  • Bartender of the Month
  • Book Review
  • Business
  • Chop Chop
  • Commentary
  • Drag Queen Profile
  • Featured
  • Film Review
  • Financial
  • Geo Doing Geo Things
  • Health
  • Horoscopes
  • Interviews
  • Interviews from Key West
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Moments in Queer New Orleans History
  • Museum Spotlights
  • Music
  • Musings by Catherine
  • New to New Orleans
  • News
  • Obituaries
  • Opinions
  • Pride Spotlight
  • Profiles & Spotlights
  • Sports
  • The Here and the Now
  • The Official Dish
  • The Real Cheese
  • The Rockford Files
  • Trodding the Boards
  • Uncategorized
  • Under The Gaydar

Footer

Ambush Magazine Logo

Ambush Magazine is New Orleans' and the Gulf Coast's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer entertainment, news, and travel guide since 1982.

Publisher TJ Acosta
Editor-In-Chief Reed Wendorf
Founding Publisher/Editor Rip Naquin-Delain
Senior Editor Brian Sands
Distribution George Bevan Jr

Email info@ambushpublishing.com
Phone (504) 522-8049

Recent Posts

  • The LGBTLOL Queer Comedy Fest Returns to New Orleans
  • The Rockford Files: Waiting for Life to Begin
  • Trodding the Boards May 9, 2025
  • Queer Arts as Resistance
  • Ambush on the Road – A Gay in the Garden State

Proud Member

Gulf South LGBT Chamber Logo

Let’s Get Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 · Ambush Publishing LLC All Rights Reserved · Website Built by Reed Wendorf · Log in