08/05/2025
If you’re in the French Quarter this coming Saturday, here’s a friendly heads-up: you’re about to witness something uniquely… NOLA.
The event is the Red Dress Run. 💃🏾Technically, it’s exactly what it sounds like: thousands of people donning red dresses (regardless of gender) but the “run” part is mostly in name only.
For most participants, it’s a huge, mobile day-drinking party that starts in the morning and peaks in the afternoon, meandering throughout the French Quarter until much, much later.
The Run attracts thousands of attendees. You’ll see everything from tutu-clad bros to red-glittered grandmas pretty much on every block in the Quarter, either gathered around or walking to the next bar. It’s loud fun for some and off-putting for others.
If you are coming here to enjoy some summer vacay time with family before school restarts and would rather not see red, here are a couple of options:
Take a Bike Tour/Rent Bikes 🚴🚴🏾♀️🚴♂️ As red dress runners are on foot, buzzing around New Orleans on a bicycle is an easy way to distance yourself from the spilled beer. You can book a bike tour that gives you an overview of New Orleans or one that focuses on the beautiful mansions of the Garden District. Or you can rent a bike (or ebike) and discover the city on your own terms. Regardless, BuzzNOLA.com at 223 Dauphine is an easy walk from most hotels and Airbnb’s as it is in the Quarter (open daily 9:30-4:30).
Get an RTA Day Pass If you get a day pass from the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA), you can ride the Canal St ferry across the Mississippi River and be in quiet and beautiful Algiers Point in no time. You can also travel on the streetcar to your heart’s content. Just remember that the red streetcars are air-conditioned and the green ones are not. Oh, the RTA has busses too but they are irregular and somewhat prone to breaking down (you have been warned).
Take a Swamp Tour Never seen a gator in person? There are a variety of boat companies in the NOLA area that can solve this for you. Truth be told, you will likely see at least one live gator if you take one of BuzzNola’s city tours but the swamps that surround New Orleans are beautiful to behold and plum filled with gators. In the summer heat, the covered pontoon boats offer shade and you can mill about on the boat, whereas on an airboat, you are strapped into your seat and at the sun’s mercy. Regardless, stop by Buzz Nola on Dauphine and they can get you on the next tour, regardless whether or not that tour includes 2 wheels.
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