Although I have been to NO and the quarter, I have never been there during Mardi Gras. Everyone always talks about how crowded it is then (like it already isn't crowded in the quarter! it scares me to think it could be MORE crowded, yikes!).
Anyway, I have been to the one in Galveston...I know, not the genuine article, but still a big deal to Houstonians. The last time was with my sorority sisters. We stayed at one of my sister's parents' house on the island and we walked down to the strand. We were having fun and taking pics and stuff when we heard gunshots and then a guy fell off a balcony and all of a sudden there were SWAT guys with shields and helmets charging through the crowd. They told everyone to get back up against the buildings and crouch down, so we did. One of my sisters kept telling me "I don't wanna die!!!!!" It was so scary. Then there were more gunshots. Then they arrested some people and told everyone Mardi Gras was officially over...big stuff...
Anyway, then it started raining really hard and the streets started to flood and several of the girls' cars got flooded out before we could try to move them to higher ground from where they were parked at our sister's house...big fiasco. And I always wondered why my mom said that it was so dangerous
