Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club
The first parade of Mardi Gras morning and New Orleans's best-known Black Carnival organisation, famous for its hand-decorated coconuts.
- Usual slot
- Mardi Gras morning
- Usual start
- 8 a.m. (check the year's schedule)
- Route
- Central City start (Jackson Ave and S. Claiborne), then St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street
- Founded
- 1909 (as a marching club); incorporated 1916
- Signature throws
- Hand-painted coconuts
- Official site
- kreweofzulu.com
History
Zulu grew out of a group of working men's benevolent societies: a marching club called 'the Zulus' paraded around 1909 with its first king, William Story, and the club incorporated as a social aid and pleasure club in 1916. It is New Orleans's largest predominantly African American Carnival organisation, and it still runs charitable and social programmes year-round.
Louis Armstrong reigned as King Zulu in 1949, one of the best-remembered moments in Carnival history.
The coconut is Zulu's signature throw, painted and decorated by riders and handed down rather than hurled. Coconut throws stopped in 1987 over injury lawsuits and returned after a 1988 Louisiana law limited the krewe's liability.
Zulu rolls first on Mardi Gras morning, ahead of Rex. In 2025 high winds moved it to 6:30 a.m. on a shortened route, a reminder that times can change at short notice.
If the usual slot holds Usual pattern, not announced
Usual slot: Mardi Gras morning. Tied to Fat Tuesday, that slot gives these dates. They are projections, not a schedule: confirm on the krewe's site or the city's Mardi Gras page before you travel.
| Carnival | Usual-slot date | Fat Tuesday |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Tue 17 Feb | Tue 17 Feb |
| 2027 | Tue 9 Feb | Tue 9 Feb |
| 2028 | Tue 29 Feb | Tue 29 Feb |
| 2029 | Tue 13 Feb | Tue 13 Feb |
| 2030 | Tue 5 Mar | Tue 5 Mar |
| 2031 | Tue 25 Feb | Tue 25 Feb |
| 2032 | Tue 10 Feb | Tue 10 Feb |
| 2033 | Tue 1 Mar | Tue 1 Mar |
| 2034 | Tue 21 Feb | Tue 21 Feb |
| 2035 | Tue 6 Feb | Tue 6 Feb |
Recent parades: 2025: 4 Mar 2025; 2026: 17 Feb 2026 (published city schedules). Both fell exactly on the usual slot.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulu_Social_Aid_%26_Pleasure_Club (founding; coconut history; checked 2026-10-26)
- kreweofzulu.com/history (Louis Armstrong as King Zulu, 1949; checked 2026-10-26)
History written for this site from the sources above. Parade dates for 2025 and 2026 from published city schedules.