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BREAKING NEWS (New Orleans, LA)
UPDATE 1: State of emergency declared in Louisiana as Gustav nears.  The hurricane has not made its way through the Cuba area but a State of emergency has been declared.  I would change plans now for Labor Day weekend.

UPDATE 2: NHC Has Gustav making landfall around 8pm (not 8am as stated earlier) on Monday but the outer bands of the storm should be there around 12 hours earlier.

Could Hurricane Gustav Cancel Southern Decadence? Looks like Chi Chi LaRue may be moving her wigs to another city as the winds blow the direction of New Orleans disrupting the big gay Labor Day festivities.

It was exactly this time three years ago that Southern Decadence was going through the same worries with a hurricane headed its way. They had no idea that it would do the damage it did to New Orleans even though the TV meteorologists kept repeating that the flooding was possible. The gays that were supposed to party at the gay version of mardi gras in NOLA either did not go there that year at all and canceled their vacations for Labor Day weekend or they went and got the hell out of town when they were told its time to leave and abandon the city entirely.

This year the 5-day cone issued from the National Hurricane Center on the NOAA website projects that New Orleans is in the track of Hurricane Gustav which could be a Category 4 hurricane. We could see a repeat of Labor Day weekend from 2005 which is three years ago tomorrow. The official National Hurricane Center track has this storm hitting New Orleans as a category 3 or 4 Monday morning at 8 am.

Remember If you have to cancel your trip to New Orleans you can always come to Austin for the weekend. There is Splash weekend going on and that is where all the cute boys are headed anyway. The storms should not reach Austin until after the Labor day festivities. Come on down to Austin and party it up with the big boys of University of Texas nearby. Better be safe than sorry!

You may not even get the chance to be trapped in New Orleans because I have read that they will not allow anyone into the city Friday if this happens.

If a Category 3 or stronger hurricane comes within 72 hours of the city, New Orleans plans to institute a mandatory evacuation order. Unlike Katrina, there will be no massive shelter at the Superdome, a plan designed to encourage residents to leave. Instead, the state has arranged for buses and trains to take people to safety.

Update #2 - JustCircuit.com just sent an email about Southern Decadence to its readers stating “Please take note: all New Orleans Decadence events will take place. Threatening weather from Hurricane Gustavo is not expected to arrive until early Monday morning.” which is accurate but you must consider that a mandatory evacuation order will not be worth the risk of going to New Orleans and being stuck at an Airport or on a bus and risking others lives who live in New Orleans.  I would advise to skip this year and return next year.

If you are down New Orleans way for Labor Day weekend then you might want to join in the fun and frolics at Southern Decadence, or as it is now widely called the ‘Gay Mardi Gras’. Events start on Wednesday, August 27th and carry on through until Monday, September 1st . But what exactly is this huge homo event?

Well, according to the official website, it started 37 years ago as a simple going away party and has since evolved into one of the world’s top gay events. It is one of New Orleans’ largest annual events with over 100,000 gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and trans-gendered people turning up for it. The city’s French Quarter gets packed out all week but it is the Sunday when the ‘Grand Marshal’ leads the parade through the streets starting at two in the afternoon. Each parade is named and themed and this year, 2008, the parade is titled ‘Decadence Goes Disco’, the theme colors are black, silver and white and the Grand Marshals will be Paloma and Tittie Toulouse.

Where Bourbon Street meets St. Ann Street on the corner is where you will find the center of New Orleans’ gay world. Here you will also find the city’s largest gay nightclub, The Bourbon, and The Parade dance club with many of the city’s other gay attractions, shops, bars and clubs within a few blocks. Expect that area to get busy all day and night long as the pubs don’t close and there is a huge amount of entertainment lined up.

Chi Chi LaRue has been the hostess for the last ten years and will be back again this august to front the festivities. Other stars appearing include: Shirley Q. Liquor, Lady Bunny, Deborah Cox, Kimberley Locke, Jeanie Tracy and Thea Austin. There are cabaret shows, outdoor concerts and dance nights with Deca-Dance XX being the largest dance event of the weekend.

Sounds like you’ll want to get in there early and the good news is that you can buy tickets in advance for many of the scheduled events. To read more about what’s going on and to buy tickets you can go to the official website: southerndecadence.net where you will also see the events schedule, a map of the area, the venues and pictures from previous Mardi Gras.

I say ‘official’ website as that is what it calls itself. So does southerndecadence.com where there is information about who is sponsoring what. For example the official beer sponsors are Bud Light and the media guide is provided by Ambush Mag. There is also a comprehensive history of the event and lists of accommodation, transport notes and much more. Both sites are as good as each other for information, I just wonder why there are two “official” sites?

If you want to hear and see what goes on right now you can log into the Tube sites and do a search under ‘Southern Decadence’ I found loads of clips this way. You’ll hear guys talking about the day, you’ll see guys flashing their dicks too and this is a good way to get a flavor of the things to come. Why, there are even some websites out there that feature videos filmed at the events, mainly street parties and club movies but every now and then you’ll get someone showing himself off. You get the impression that at the New Orleans Mardi Gras just about anything goes… and that just about everything comes off. It’s a celebration and a chance for thousands of gay folk, both boys and girls, to let their hair down.

So why haven’t you bought your tickets yet?