Muted Mardi Gras: Closed bars, barricaded Bourbon Street

People in costume walk past a shuttered bar on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Friday, Feb. 12, 2021. New Orleans’ annual pre-Lenten Mardi Gras celebration is muted this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Parades canceled. Bars closed. Crowds suppressed. Mardi Gras joy is muted this year in New Orleans as authorities seek to stifle the coronavirus’s spread. And it’s a blow to the tradition-bound city’s party-loving soul.