Following a red carpet arrival at the New Orleans Museum of Art, King Felipe the VI and Queen Letizia of Spain treated to jazz performance and cultural performance by Mardi Gras Indians.
The Latest on the visit to New Orleans by the King and Queen of Spain (all times local):
2:30 p.m.
Following a red carpet arrival at the New Orleans Museum of Art, King Felipe the VI and Queen Letizia of Spain enjoyed music by a jazz group and a cultural performance by Mardi Gras Indians as they ended a visit to the city celebrating its tricentennial.
After a private lunch Saturday with Mayor Latoya Cantrell, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and other dignitaries and officials, the royals departed New Orleans for San Antonio, Texas, which is also celebrating 300 years of existence.
Felipe and Letizia flew in Thursday evening to Louisiana, which was a Spanish colony from 1763 to 1802. They saluted New Orleans’ centuries-old Spanish heritage at an event Friday at Gallier Hall, a former City Hall opened in 1853 and renovated for the city’s 300th anniversary. That evening, they visited two buildings erected under Spanish rule: St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo, the Spanish government seat in Louisiana.
___
7:40 a.m.
Jazz musicians and Mardi Gras Indians will entertain the king and queen of Spain as the royal couple winds up a visit celebrating New Orleans’ tricentennial. King Felipe (feh-LEE-peh) VI and Queen Letizia (leh-TEETH-ee-uh) head from Louisiana to San Antonio, Texas, and Washington.
Clarinetist, music historian and Spanish professor Michael White says he and his Original Liberty Brass Band will play two pieces with a connection to Europe and New Orleans at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
White says the third likely will be “When the Saints Go Marching In,” which he describes as “probably the most famous song in the city’s history.”
Mardi Gras Indians are groups of African-Americans who create elaborate feathered and beaded costumes in which they strut and dance through the streets on Mardi Gras.
