New Orleans • Louisiana

TBD: SPRING 2025

Get in the Jazz spirit this Spring at the Axeman's Ball presented by Krewe of BOO! The New Orleans' Official Halloween Parade.

As the birthplace of Jazz, New Orleans music has influenced musicians, performers, authors, painters, and even an infamous serial killer known only as The Axeman.

While Jazz grew out of drumming and musical improv, it was an artform rejected by high society in its early days, only to be played in gin joints and dime-a-trick cribs in the old Storyville District.

Between two world wars and among a great depression, Jazz music became the uplifting spirit in a time of battle and loss. Instruments were made to sing notes played from the heart rather than sheets of paper. Brass bands began performing syncopated Jazz on the stage of riverboats, all-night bars, and rowdy dance taverns, working its way into the esteemed theatres and upscale venues.

Therefore, when the city was terrorized by a murderous Axeman who slayed families in their homes, a letter was sent to the local newspaper written by the Axeman himself, telling the people of New Orleans that he would spare the city any killings one certain night if every household were to play his favorite type of music, Jazz. On that night, folks hired bands, played records, and packed in to music halls to comply with the serial killer's request. No one was axed down on that night. Jazz had saved the city.

The folklore of the Axeman's Jazz signifies how Jazz music can transform and transcend. It is the marriage of a cornet, a trumpet, and a trombone. It is the lifeblood of New Orleans. It is the soundtrack of the city, the cosmopolitan cadence, the melting pot of music.

Jazz is legend.

Celebrate Jazz and the Jazz Age, an era known as the Roaring Twenties, by donning your best flapper dress and swing attire, get out your gaudy beads and fedoras to join us at The Axeman's Ball.

TBD

TBD: SPRING 2025

Kick off the Roaring 20's vibe where Jazz music will play and people will dance like it's 1922. In a city over 300 years old, we will celebrate the last century's innovation and dedication to the art of Jazz.

TBD

Wear your best Prohibition-Era style costume and join Krewe of BOO! as we host the fourth annual Axeman's Ball in Spring 2025.

Roaring Twenties / Jazz Era / Turn-of-the-Century
Costumes Encouraged!

One century ago, women were empowered with freedoms such as the right to vote and to dress as they pleased. Art deco was the design style rage, and men wore the stereotypical "mobster" attire of the trench coat, zoot suit, and fedora. Ladies, don your flapper gowns, gloves, beaded pearls, feathers and fringe!