Revelers pack streets at start of Mardi Gras

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Carnival revelers streamed into the city Saturday -- and Mardi Gras organizers hoped to throw such a fantastic party that visitors would vow to return to this tourist-dependent city again.
Tourism officials expect at least as many visitors as last year, 700,000, to come for the annual celebration. It's the second time the event has been held since Hurricane Katrina struck.
"It's great, isn't it?" Kelly Schulz, a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, asked. "This is a very big deal."
Parades are planned each day, leading to Fat Tuesday. Some parade-goers began staking out prime spots to see the elaborate processionals and perhaps even glimpse a celebrity.
Stately, oak-lined St. Charles Avenue had a midway feel, partly lined with vendors selling cotton candy, sandwiches and other food. The median was lined with ladders, many topped with cushioned seats for children.
Barbecue smoke from grills filled the air, and rap, jazz, and '80s pop blared from boom boxes.
Eric Johnson, 19, of Knoxville, Tenn., compared the atmosphere to the excitement before a football game -- "like everybody's on the same side." It was his first time at Carnival, and he caught so many strands of beads that they covered his chest at least two inches deep.
The Krewe of Endymion, one of Carnival's best-known groups, marched Saturday afternoon with "American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks in the lead. The salt-and-pepper-haired singer performed later that evening with Al Green and Journey at Endymion's sold-out ball at the Superdome.
New Orleans is slowly recovering from Katrina, the signs of which are still obvious in swaths of the city but largely unnoticeable to those who stay in the touristy French Quarter and central business district.
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