Southern Decadence in New Orleans - by Howard Philips Smith & Frank Perez (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Founded in the summer of 1972 by a few friends as a modest celebration, the Southern Decadence festival has since grown into one of New Orleans's largest annual tourist events. The multiday extravaganza features street parties, drag contests, dancing, drinking, and bead tosses, culminating with a boisterous parade through the French Quarter ... [This book] brings together an ... array of materials to provide the first comprehensive, historical look at [the festival]"--Dust jacket flap.

Book Synopsis

Founded in the summer of 1972 by a few friends as a modest celebration, the Southern Decadence festival has since grown into one of New Orleans's largest annual tourist events.

The multiday extravaganza features street parties, drag contests, dancing, drinking, and bead tosses, culminating with a boisterous parade through the French Quarter. With over 200,000 participants--predominantly LGBT+--these unbridled, pre-Labor Day festivities now generate millions of dollars in revenue.

Howard Philips Smith and Frank Perez's Southern Decadence in New Orleans brings together an astounding array of materials to provide the first comprehensive, historical look at Southern Decadence. In an engaging account spanning five decades, the authors combine a trove of rare memorabilia from the event's founders, early photographs and film stills, newspaper and magazine articles, interviews with longtime participants, a list of all the parades and grand marshals, as well as reproductions of early Southern Decadence invitations. Throughout, the authors explore the pivotal moments and public perceptions related to the festival--including the myths and conjecture that often inaccurately characterized it--and provide an in-depth narrative detailing how a small party in the Faubourg Tremé grew into a worldwide destination predominantly for gay men.

Lauded by city leaders as the second-most profitable festival in New Orleans (outshone only by Mardi Gras), Southern Decadence emanates an air of frivolity that masks its enormous impact on the culture and economy of the Crescent City. But with such growth comes the challenge of maintaining the original spirit of camaraderie while managing expanding administrative and logistical responsibilities. Southern Decadence in New Orleans serves as a historical record that helps ensure the future of the celebration remains forever linked to the joyous impulse of its humble beginnings.

Review Quotes

Howard Philips Smith and Frank Perez's book successfully charts the evolution of Southern Decadence from hippie utopia to gay extravaganza over the course of forty-plus years. Based on interviews of key participants and written in a lush style that mirrors its subject matter, it fills a major gap in the literature on New Orleans festivals and on LGBT+ cultural expression in the United States.--Aurélie Godet, coeditor of the Journal of Festive Studies

Southern Decadence, New Orleans's annual Labor Day weekend expression of joy, creativity, and debauchery, struts, sashays, and sings from these pages! Howard Philips Smith and Frank Perez illuminate the deep background and yearly dynamics of this festival, from its private origins to the huge event it is today. Everyone who loves New Orleans will find this book fascinating.--Scott S. Ellis, author of The Faubourg Marigny of New Orleans: A History

This is not only an important and delightful work of cultural history, it is also a definitive reference resource that proves, from its founding, Southern Decadence reflected and contributed to larger national and international conversations in all their variety, from civil rights to Carnival to health care. That makes Southern Decadence, and this book, a treasure for everyone.--Leon C. Miller, Louisiana Research Collection, Tulane University

About the Author

Howard Philips Smith is art director at the University of Southern California Libraries and the author of Unveiling the Muse: The Lost History of Gay Carnival in New Orleans.

Frank Perez is president of the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana.