About Us

Where Mardi Gras is Made

When you come to New Orleans, there are countless tours to choose from: historic tours, ghost tours, swamp tours, and more. But only one tour offers a real, behind-the-scenes look at New Orleans’ most special celebration: Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras World not only gives you an authentic Mardi Gras experience year-round, but also takes you deeper into the work behind making Mardi Gras. Whether you’re visiting New Orleans for the first time or you’ve been on the parade route since before you were able to say “throw me something mister,” the Mardi Gras World tour is something you can’t miss.

The Krewe of Rex bull float decorated with flowers, surrounded by costumed riders during a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade

A Kern Studios artist spray-painting a large figure sculpture in the workshop

A guided tour group inside the Mardi Gras World float den, surrounded by larger-than-life parade figures

A Kern Studios artist painting facial details on a character figure, with a Shrek prop in the background

Pixie, the Kern Studios robotic carving arm, sculpting a foam float prop

Visitors on a Mardi Gras World tour viewing a large painted figure sculpture in the float den

Our History

Black-and-white historical photo of a young Blaine Kern Sr. working on detailed models at a desk

The Blaine Kern Artists, Inc. crew gathered in front of the Algiers studio in the 1980s

Blaine Kern, founder of Kern Studios, in his car with comical prop heads on display

The Mardi Gras World float den in Algiers, Louisiana, with parade floats in the foreground and the New Orleans skyline behind

The rich history of Kern Studios dates back to 1932, when the first mule-drawn float was built on the back of a garbage wagon.

The early days of what has grown into Kern Studios started with Roy Kern, a local artist-turned-sign-painter who worked his way through the Depression by painting names and signs on the bows of freighters and barges.

Roy and his son Blaine built their first Mardi Gras float together on the back on a mule-drawn wagon in 1932. Unable to pay his mother’s medical bills, Blaine offered to paint a mural in the hospital, which caught the eye of a surgeon who was also the captain of a Mardi Gras Krewe. This captain invited Blaine to design and build floats for his Krewe, and Kern Studios was officially founded in its current form in 1947. One float led to another, and before long Blaine became the city’s leading parade designer and builder, working with Rex, Zulu, and other legendary krewes.

“Mr. Mardi Gras”

Blaine Kern traveled throughout Europe to apprentice under the world’s leading float and costume makers. During several trips to Italy, France, and Spain, Blaine became inspired by the extravagant concepts and animation that marked the European style of float building.

He brought these ideas to New Orleans and developed the monumental scale and lavish ornamentation of today’s spectacular Mardi Gras floats. Blaine Kern was instrumental in the formative years of some of New Orleans’ biggest parades and “Super Krewes” and is still known as “Mr. Mardi Gras.”

The Creation of Mardi Gras World

After many requests for private tours of Kern Studios from people wanting a sneak-peak of Mardi Gras, the Kerns decided to open up the working studio to the public. In 1984, Mardi Gras World was created as a tourist attraction to provide visitors a behind-the-scenes look of our work. Widely successful, the attraction draws hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world each year.