The first thing you notice about the Crewe of Columbus is the spelling of the name. It's the only group on the Gulf Coast that uses "Crewe" instead of "Krewe."

When the group was founded in 1921 (1922, the year of its first parade, is often used as its beginning date), it was the Krewe of Columbus, and it was open only to members of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's organization.

After several years, however, membership was opened to others, and in 1937, the Krewe was reorganized and re-emerged as the Crewe. The main reason for the spelling change was so the initials of the Mardi Gras organization would not be confused with those of the Knights of Columbus.

In recent years, the COC parade underwent another big change. It was a longstanding tradition that members of the Crewe built the floats themselves. But in 2010, COC hit the downtown streets with professionally built floats, including their mainstays, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

Perhaps the best-known of their permanent floats is Isabella or "Izzie," a three-headed sea serpant.

This year, the Crewe rolled on February 9 at 6:30 p.m. Their theme was Mussell Memories, a tribute to the Crewe's former float builder, Steve Mussell. There were 19 floats, duplicating Mussell's work from across the years and for different mystic societies. They were built by Ben Kaiser's Mirth Artists. Costumes were by Bienville Costumes.

To see the Mask's exclusive photo album of the 2024 Crewe of Columbus parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of that parade, click HERE.

2019

2023

2020

COC 2017

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2022 Crewe of Columbus parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

COC 2016

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2023 Crewe of Columbus parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2018 Crewe of Columbus parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

COC 2024
Crewe of Columbus 2022

2024

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2019 Crewe of Columbus parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

2018

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2017 Crewe of Columbus parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

Archive

2017

COC 2019

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2020 Crewe of Columbus parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

2016

To see the Mask's exclusive HD video of the 2016 Crewe of Columbus parade, click HERE.
To see the Mask's exclusive album of photos from that parade, place your cursor on the image below and click on the arrows.

2022

COC 2018
COC 2020

To see our photo
albums and HD
videos from previous
years, simply scroll
down the page.

Crewe of Columbus 2023