Co-author Howard Philips Smith has been participating in Decadence since the early 1980s. Co-author Frank Perez is a grand marshal this year, responsible for helping to raise money and plan the event as a whole. And the authors have long been deeply involved in the annual celebration that's expected to bring around 200,000 people to New Orleans this Labor Day weekend. Southern Decadence in New Orleans looks at the festival’s long-honored traditions and its history of community organizing, friendship, and charity, without ever downplaying all that is scandalous, sensual, sleazy, and, well, decadent about the event. But a new book on the history of Southern Decadence is hoping to bring to light the event’s little-remembered origins as a celebration of a diverse group of queer and straight friends. To most outsiders, Southern Decadence in New Orleans is just an excuse to wear a leather harness and get shitfaced in public, with little to distinguish it from San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair or Pride in any other big city in the South.
