Mardi Gras and Carnival celebrations fill the streets — see the most spectacular costumes of 2024

Carnival season culminated Tuesday with Mardi Gras parades, street parties and what amounted to a massive outdoor costume festival around the bars and restaurants of New Orleans' French Quarter. 

Revelers in capes, wigs, spandex and feathers danced in front of St. Louis Cathedral at Jackson Square while Latin music blared. 

Outside the narrow streets of the quarter, two tradition-rich parades rolled on a route that took them through the city's Uptown neighborhood and onto Canal Street in the business district. First came the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, with marchers and riders in African-inspired garb handing out the century-old club's signature gift — hand-decorated coconuts.