The show must go on

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Once every year, Eve Marie Stocker, an otherwise sensible D.C. attorney for the Department of Labor, dons a satin costume with a sequin mask and boards a "Krewe of Iris" float to toss "throws" to the carnival masses in New Orleans.

"I burn up my annual leave every year," said the New Orleans native, as she touches her Fleur de Lis lapel pin, a memento of her membership in the city's largest and oldest parade organization for women.

This year's march to Mardi Gras, the first since Hurricane Katrina left the city a shell of its rip-roaring self, may be smaller and a little more somber, but for Miss Stocker and the residents who've returned, it will remain a celebration of family, friends and the city's guests.

"It's not going to help for everyone to crawl up into a ball," said Miss Stocker, whose Alexandria town house is blanketed with the colors of Mardi Gras -- purple, yellow and green -- and flies the season's flag.

"Do people think it's insensitive? Yes. People died. But you have to move on. It will be very emotional. So much is riding on this," she said.

City leaders, who said before the floodwaters even had receded that Mardi Gras festivities would occur, hope that this year's scaled-down version, the 150th, will be the first step back to carnivals that attract 1 million visitors and generate more than $1 billion for the local economy.

"We do expect crowds to be incrementally less that 1 million. However, we do anticipate the crowds to be sizable," said Erica R. Papillion, a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Bob Wangler of Bourbon Street Balcony in the French Quarter said his private party rooms have been sold out.

"People are coming," he said. "No one is saying not to go. We should have a Mardi Gras, and we will have a Mardi Gras."

Of the 36,000 New Orleans hotel rooms before Katrina hit, about 27,000 are back in operation, some of which still are housing displaced citizens and recovery workers.