The entire city gets in on the action! LGBT bars, restaurants, and other venues from the Lower Garden District to the Bywater will have their own special take on Decadence Weekend. In simplest terms, modern day Southern Decadence is a weekend-long festival taking place in and around the French Quarter, that includes drag shows, bar events, pool parties, community events and much more. Each year, the festival kept growing and blossomed into the event it is today. The event started out very small and initially was just among a group of friends who called themselves “Decadents.” Since the group had so much fun over Labor Day Weekend in 1972, they decided to plan another event for that weekend over the Summer of 1973.
Southern Decadence is street festival / party that began back in 1972 as a going away party.