A Preview of the 2025 Super Bowl Parade
When the most televised sports game on Earth comes knocking to New Orleans, the city responds with what's on track to be its most televised parade ever.
The 2025 Super Bowl Parade, featuring floats from designer and businessman Barry Kern of the iconic production company Kern Studios, is taking a prominent role in the pregame festivities for Super Bowl LIX in the morning on Saturday, February 8. Featuring 16 different floats and a wide selection of bands and dance troupes, the New Orleans Super Bowl Host Committee Parade is set to be one of the largest events in an already jam-packed Super Bowl weekend schedule.
While New Orleans parades are never an "easy" undertaking, there are unique challenges to this particular event. While the dozens of parades that roll throughout the Mardi Gras season are funded by the riders of those parades as private organizations, the Super Bowl parade is a one-time deal so closely connected to the NFL. Every float design has to come to the exacting branding specifications of the NFL, the Super Bowl, and individual sponsors. Creating the magic of these floats is a balancing act between both the brand image of the NFL and the authentic feeling of a New Orleans parade on such an extraordinary stage. Floats are building out their own private rosters of riders, although it's been confirmed that some current NFL stars are making plans to stop by.
It's hard to think of anyone who has as much experience in serving up mass-scale Mardi Gras flare than Mr. Kern. Founded by Barry's father Blaine, Kern Studios practically owns the patent on the epic-in-scale "super-krewes" that dominate the final nights leading up to Fat Tuesday, and the company's creations are displayed with pride both in the city itself at Mardi Gras World, as well as abroad. "We really are asked not just for stuff here in New Orleans, but for bringing that art all around the country. Our work is used every year for two months straight in Universal Studios' Mardi Gras in Orlando. When you see that, it's humbling, while also pointing to the appetite that's there for the culture of Mardi Gras and New Orleans," Kern said. In keeping with the Louisiana motif, the ceremonial king of the parade is none other than Raising Cane's founder and LSU alum Todd Graves.
This appetite, when applied to the biggest day in sports, gives a sense of how much of an occasion it is that the Super Bowl parade is aiming to rise to. "This is easily going to be the most televised parade in the history of New Orleans," said Kern, revealing that the parade is planned for broadcast on every Hearst-affiliate television station (in New Orleans, the Hearst-affiliate being WDSU), along with the NFL Network and several Fox affiliates (Fox in New Orleans being WVUE), as well. This is expected to reach thousands, if not over a million broadcasters. "It's not just a pre-show entertainment for guests, but is really establishing the parade as a whole event in the days-long celebrations culminating at the big kickoff."
On the organizational
end, this is all about bringing the authentic feel of New Orleans to a large
audience, both in-person and over the airwaves. "We've been planning this
for about two years," said Billy Ferrante, vice president of the Greater
New Orleans Sports Foundation and indispensable organizer for
all-things-parade. "The NFL has a great reputation they've built up with
the Kerns, coming even from the celebration parade that followed the Saints'
big win at Super Bowl XLIV in 2010."
Kern himself remembers the celebratory home season parade, as well: "We had Dave Matthews. We had Taylor Swift when she was first making it big, and, since then, she's pretty much become one of the biggest acts on the planet. There were a lot of great memories from that whole era—the traffic that could get backed up all the way to Slidell not quite withstanding." Traffic or not, it seems that fans in-town and abroad are ready to see New Orleans culture.
The Super Bowl Parade is
set to roll on Saturday, February 8 at 10 a.m. The parade begins at the
intersection of North Peters Street and Elysian Fields Avenue, ending at St.
Charles Avenue and St. Joseph Street. For more information, see official parade
broadcaster WDSU.
