Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

New Orleans puts on New Year's party face

NEW ORLEANS - Ringing out one of the worst years in its colorful history, New Orleans launched into a rollicking New Year's Eve of memorials and merrymaking, from a traditional jazz funeral procession in honor of the hundreds of hurricane victims to an after-dark New Year's party.

Despite the destruction still evident from Hurricane Katrina, the city decided to welcome the New Year with fireworks, concerts and - in a twist on the Times Square ball drop - the lowering of a giant gumbo pot to mark the start of 2006.

"New Orleans is back open, so come on down and start visiting. That's the word to get out," said Brian Kern, an organizer.

Before Katrina, the Big Easy's all-night bars, haute cuisine, steamboats and romantic French Quarter courtyards made it a favorite New Year's Eve destination for tourists.

This New Year's celebration, business leaders agreed, was the perfect chance to show the world that New Orleans still knows how to throw a party. The celebration was funded by private enterprise.

Even the Jazz funeral procession, which wound through the Uptown neighborhood Saturday afternoon, was festive.

"We're getting into the spirit," said Sharif Nadir, a 59-year-old writer, as he hugged friends and followed the procession. "I just hope it puts people into the spirit to rebuild."

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush and his wife, Laura, and her mother, Jenna Welch, spent a quiet evening dining at their Texas ranch for New Year's Eve, a White House spokesman said.

"He's just spending time with Mrs. Bush," spokesman Trent Duffy said. He said the couple's daughters were not spending New Year's Eve at the ranch.

[Last modified January 1, 2006, 00:29:14]