Krewe founder Ro Mayer estimates that 500 people took to the streets of the Warehouse District during the Krewe of Dead Pelicans’ inaugural second line for the Gulf of Mexico last Saturday, June 5. Pair of Dice Brass Band led the funeral procession of blue-and-black clad, costumed second liners with tunes like “I’ll Fly Away” and Louisiana state song “You are My Sunshine.” At Gallier Hall, New Orleans’ former City Hall, mourners observed 11 minutes of silence, one for each victim of the Deepwater Horizon explosion: Jason Anderson, Dale Burkeen, Donald Clark, Stephen Curtis, Gordon Jones, Karl Dale Kleppinger, Roy Wyatt Kemp, Blair Manuel, Dewey Revette, Shane Roshto and Adam Weise. Mayer, pictured below in mourning clothes, explained her motives this way:

I wanted a New Orleans cultural event overlaid with a design, pattern, a theme, a logo, a motto and a chant. I wanted something pretty for the media that would be irresistible. Something pretty for the people to participate in so that we could distract ourselves with something useful from something horrible that we cannot access or do anything about, apparently.

Photos by Colin Miller