Ashley Dean / WWNO
By now there are probably few who haven’t seen the video of a large crowd of people partying on Bourbon Street over the weekend. People in the crowd, some of whom were not wearing face coverings, were dancing and singing along to a popular song by Baton Rouge rapper Boosie.
The video’s social media ubiquity and the outcry from New Orleanians has forced the city to respond but not to change its stance on Mardi Gras tourists during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The mass gatherings that we saw in the video from Bourbon Street last weekend . it’s dangerous, it risks lives, and it risks the progress that we’ve made,” New Orleans Communications Director Beau Tidwell said in a press conference Tuesday.
Enigma Arts / Flickr (Creative Commons)
Originally published on January 26, 2021 4:36 pm
A bar in Uptown New Orleans and a local Mardi Gras krewe have been reprimanded by the city for violating COVID-19 guidelines and putting New Orleanians in danger.
A photo that circulated on social media showed the Monkey Hill Bar packed with patrons standing close together last Saturday night. Most of the guests were not wearing masks.
New Orleans Director of Communications Beau Tidwell said in a Tuesday press briefing that the city over the weekend received several complaints against the bar about patrons not wearing masks, poor social distancing, occupancy violations, and the bar serving past 11 p.m., the current cut-off time for alcohol sales.
Large Maskless Crowd at New Orleans Bar Catching Heat
A bar in New Orleans is under some heat right now after a photo of a large crowd made it’s rounds on social media. Not only was the crowd large, but the majority of the crowd was maskless. Monkey Hill Bar hosted an event on Saturday and managers are saying it got out of hand, according to WWL-TV.
Monkey Hill Bar management said that the event was only supposed to host 40 guests for a private party per city Covid-19 safety guidelines of 25% capacity, but the crowd size quickly grew larger. They also said that since they only expected a small gathering they weren’t prepared with enough staff to minimize the crowd. They only had one manager, a bartender, and a bar back.