Southern Decadence 2013

Anyone going? I'm a newbie, both for the event and for New Orleans. Anything I should know? Anything to avoid, or to definitely do?

• Tons of beads, open cups of beer on the street, fat middle-aged Southern gay men with names like "Dale" and "Trey" and "Dwayne"... it sounds like my idea of heaven,m frankly.

• OP - New Orleans is fun just about any time of year. It depends on what you want to do... see the city or go to what's turned into a sort of low-grade circuit party split between thirtysomething queens and fiftysomething bears, crammed four to a hotel room. SD used to be centered on the Sunday parade, which was a big fun genderfuck stagger through the French Quarter with trashy and often funny costumes. Nowadays it's more like a five-day bar and street bacchanal and the tourists don't bring much other than chaps and circuit wear. A lot of people don't even realize there's a parade. And a lot of the attendees now arrive already messy drunk and fucked-up and don't sober up for days. A lot of locals avoid most of it. And the crowd It really comes down to what you'd think would be fun -- hitting the city and seeing the sights during the day and going to the bars at night (which you can do any time of the year) ... or throwing yourself into a big, sweaty, messy circuit party.

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• Take out one day to see the town sober - but I'll say that New Orleans has some of the best food in the country. It's difficult to get a really bad meal - a bold statement which I'm sure someone will post and say is untrue - but you can get some really good local food everywhere.

• "I'm a newbie, both for the event and for New Orleans. Anything I should know? Anything to avoid, or to definitely do" Buy a time machine so that you can return to 1978.