Street parades, feathers and face paint: Thousands celebrate final day of Mardi Gras in New Orleans

The streets of New Orleans were filled with colourful floats and extravagant costumes, as thousands of residents and tourists celebrated Mardi Gras, also known as Fat Tuesday. The event sees people celebrate the last day of the carnival season, devoted to frivolity and partying in the final hours before Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent.

Organised by social clubs, known as 'Krewes', Mardi Gras see's is one of the cities most celebrated parades. "We're so unique here. We're like no other place in the world. The best place in the world, in our opinion," Zulu Queen Donna Marie Glapion told Reuters. The Krewe of Zulu parade kicked off festivities on Tuesday (28 February) morning with people on floats tossing beads and other decorative objects into the crowd of revellers.

The final day of festivities was a distraction for those taking part, after 28 people were injured in New Orleans during the main Mardi Gras parade on Saturday night (24 February) when a man ploughed his pickup truck into a crowd. Police said the suspect had a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit soon after the crash. Yet as the music played and the floats went by, the events of Saturday seemed like a distant memory.

In this gallery, IBTimesUK presents some of the best photos from the carnival: