Thousands more people are expected to swell the population of hurricane-ravaged New Orleans this weekend as the first post-Katrina Mardi Gras season approaches its climax on Tuesday.
Part economic lifeline, part escape from reality, part show of recovery, this year's carnival is taking place against a backdrop of a still-ruined city.
Most of the Mardi Gras "krewes" parading over the next few days will ride their colourful floats along the St Charles Avenue, where functioning street lights, the buzz of restaurants and the flow of people bespeak a reassuring normality.
But as New Orleans parties downtown, a few blocks away unlit tracts of devastation are a stark symbol of the hangover to which revellers will awake.
Vast neighbourhoods of the city are still utterly uninhabitable; two thirds of the pre-Katrina population is living elsewhere; some 50m cubic metres (yards) of debris still line the streets; bodies lie unclaimed in the worst-hit parts of town.
Even as Mardi Gras enters it busiest period, the estimated 150,000 remaining residents of the Big Easy are still split on whether spending $2.7m (£1.5m) on the festivities was the best move for a city whose coffers are bare, and where progress on reconstruction is, by its mayor's admission, "in limbo".
Yet despite these woes, it was almost inconceivable that Mardi Gras would not take place.
Necessity
Rich in tradition, intoxicating and at times surreal, the pre-Lenten blow-out has come to define New Orleans in the 150 years since it was first celebrated in the city.
It has also become an economic necessity, typically drawing a million people and bringing in $1bn (£600m) to the economy, as well as advertising the Louisiana port to the world.
"If we only celebrated in the good times, then we would hardly celebrate at all"
Harrah's New Orleans Casino, once one of the city's biggest employers, has opened for the first time since Katrina struck last August.
It has managed to bring back 1,500 employees despite a desperate shortage of housing.
Tourism officials say most of the 27,000 hotel rooms back in use are booked up. But it is unclear how many out-of-town visitors there will be among the thousands of recovery workers, displaced residents, insurance adjusters and building contractors.
Some say the number of visitors is not the point.
Anger reflected
British-born John Hyman is "band captain" for the satirical Krewe de Vieux which held an early Mardi Gras parade through the largely undamaged French Quarter.
The krewe's theme of "C'est Levee" set an acerbic tone, flush with Hurricane Katrina images and word play, that has been a hallmark of this year's Mardi Gras.
Yet while many krewes are reflecting the still-raw anger at the unco-ordinated response to the disaster, Mr Hyman says it is the celebration of a shared identity that many see as Mardi Gras' most important role.
"People are ready for this. This is what the spirit of New Orleans is all about," he told the BBC.
"If we only celebrated in the good times, then we would hardly celebrate at all."
Past carnival celebrations have gone ahead in the face of floods, hurricanes, yellow fever and Prohibition. Even the two world wars caused just brief interruptions.
This year, a host of celebrities including Louisiana-born Britney Spears will return to the city to support the continuing tradition.
But there is still opposition to what some see as nothing more than an expensive facade that seems inappropriate given the circumstances.
'Limbo'
Landlords Larry and Frances Fuselier lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property in the flooding, including their newly-built dream home in the Gulf Coast town of Waveland.
Before the storm they had 28 tenants. Now they have none, and are struggling to rebuild.
"The city is paying $2.7m for the policing of the carnival," says Frances. "Well, it seems to me that since we have thousands of people without anywhere to live, wouldn't it have been better to take that money and spend it on homes?"
What is certain is that there will be a post-Mardi Gras hangover - usually measured by the number of sore heads and the size of the mountain of litter strewn across the city.
Yet in 2006 the pain of the morning after may be felt more deeply as the grim realities of post-Katrina life come back into focus.
Mayor Ray Nagin alluded to the paralysis that is infecting all aspects of the city's recovery when he told senators in Washington this month that "We are in limbo and on hold".
Homeowners want to return but not unless they know they can rebuild, get a job and have somewhere to live.
Tourists are not coming because the hotels are full of contractors.
The city is broke because there are not enough people to pay taxes, and use public services. Without electricity businesses cannot open their doors, without businesses, electricity bills cannot be paid.
With the city's flood defences still a work in progress, the next hurricane season looms like a dark cloud ahead.
Little wonder that the city's souvenir shops are full of the gallows humour of T-shirts like one that states: "I went to New Orleans and all I got was this lousy T -shirt... and a Cadillac... and a plasma TV."
Nor that, for the next few days, all many in the Big Easy want to do is to follow the Cajun maxim: "Laissez les bons temps rouler" - Let the good times roll.
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