The Krewe of Fools will choose King Leo as its next monarch during a Lundi Gras celebration and the public public is invited to commemorate the group’s 16th year of paying tribute to the men, women, children and animals who are the French Quarter’s street performers.
Warpo Cole, one of the krewe’s “founders” told The Quarter Rat that King Leo “does a great juggling and balancing act” and has been a staple in the French Quarter for at least a few years.
The party begins on Monday at noon in the 600 block of Dumaine Street, where Fools will serve red beans and rice, show some street performances for anyone to watch, coronate King Leo and also march throughout the French Quarter.
While it’s only an informal krewe, Cole described Fools’ as more of group of artists engaged in a “mobile party” and its king as an an inspirational individual who actively supports the French Quarter busker community, whose members are periodically hassled city officials simply for the act of entertaining the public.
Walking through the French Quarter on any given day of the year, you’re bound to notice people playing music, singing, doing card tricks or dressed as characters. Tips are highly encouraged, but not mandatory. Cole said Buskers are a core part of the neighborhood’s history.
“There have been buskers in NOLA as long as the city has existed,” Cole told The Quarter Rat. “Jesters have always had the ear of the king. Buskers interact with people from every race, income, gender, political party etc. We bring people together and do our best to produce smiles.”
Street performers are not appreciated by everyone, as they are the target of New Orleans Police and/or French Market security personnel in sweep operations, Cole said. He added: “We have the freedom to not worry about whether a ‘boss’ is going to fire us for something we say or do, at the same time we know we can be arrested like anybody that crosses the boundaries of social proprieties of any kind. All our actions are in a spotlight, so we’re both a target, and a social bridge.”
Krewe of Fools started off as a party in 2011, when about a dozen people dressed up for Mardi Gras and and wandered around the French Quarter, according to Cole.
Today, he said Fools’ is pretty much still a party, albeit a bit more organized. The krewe adopted the motto “Pro Bono Ridiculum,” meaning “for the good of the weird” in Latin, and whose purpose is to “celebrate, preserve, protect, promote the art of street performance in New Orleans.”
Kings are selected among street performers who inspire other buskers, Cole said, adding that the monarch is also someone whose appearance is easily recognizable and thus easier to emulate in costume form. Which means that if you do attend the coronation ceremony, you’re highly encouraged — perhaps even obligated — to come dressed as King Leo.
Fools tried to uses horses in its march for two years, but Cole said the cops were rather insistent with obtaining permits. Since then, and as always, Fools was a party with friends gathering every year to honor each other’s contribution to what makes the French Quarter an extraordinary neighborhood.
“We are Fools after all,” Cole said, “and don’t like paper work or responsibility.”
