One
of the city's older krewes is also one of the younger parading
organizations via the best way possible - a party! A pre-ball
party was held in Armstrong Park in 1981 which led to a mini-parade
through the French Quarter in 1984. The French Quarter parade
helped establish the Bards as a favorite and new menbers and support
enabled them to join the regular parade season in 1990. However,
a series of financial missteps and a critical depletion of krewe
membership in the last three years threw the krewe's parading status
into flux. The
krewe was rescued in 2004 from losing its parade slot by former
Carnival
magnate Dom Carlone, who then mounted a partially-successful
takeover of the krewe's captaincy and membership in 2005. As of
August 29th, 2005 the krewe's legal captain had returned to his post
with a new board or directors. Mr. Carlone had filed for
bankruptcy earlier in the year and withdrew from the krewe entirely.
 This
krewe was stopped from marching in the 149th Carnival celebrations
by Hurricane Katrina. The krewe shares that bond with
Adonis,
Aphrodite, Arabi,
Atlas, Choctaw,
Cleopatra,
Gladiators, Grela, Hermes, L'il
Rascals,
Mercury, NOMTOC, Oshun,
Pegasus,
Pontchartrain, Saturn, du Vieux, and Crescent City. |
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