Coup de Gras IV: A New Hope

Coup de Gras is an annual anarchist Mardi Gras celebration thrown by Krewe de Main and the Center for a Stateless Society deep in the bayous of Cajun Country in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Equal parts anarchist bookfair and Carnival celebration, Coup de Gras is a yearly camping festival and unconference which aims to bring together libertarian socialist politics and the traditions of Mardi Gras.

More info on Coup de Gras: https://coupdegras.wtf/

Krewe de Main began in 2019 as the crew of people behind the Coup de Main queer anarchist intentional community but eventually grew beyond that. In 2020, they threw their first Mardi Gras celebration. They invited friends to come camp on a plot of land they were helping to clear and managed to convince none other Vermin Supreme to make the trip to New Orleans at the height of his 2020 presidential campaign.

In 2021, they went digital due to the pandemic with Coup de Gras 2: Electric Luau, and they managed to throw together one hell of a lineup of panels, speakers, workshops, music, comedy, burlesque, live book readings, art performances, and more, including the IWW, C4SS, Antiwar.com, Re Education, The Serfs, scott crow, Ford Fischer, Evan Greer, Jake Flores, Body Farm, and so many more. They also crowned their first ever Krewe royalty, King Vermin Supreme, whose rule became predictably tyrannical and when the people revolted he chose to poison himself rather than face their wrath.

In 2022, they decided to gather again in-person with proper precautions for Coup de Gras 3: Tammany Drift. The outdoor setting of the festival suddenly became an unexpected benefit in the midst of a wildly mishandled global pandemic as we relocated the festival to Fontainebleau State Park in Mandeville, Louisiana. C4SS officially joined Krewe de Main as co-organizer of the festival with C4SS focusing on the bookfair portion, which now doubled as a C4SS unconference, and Krewe de Main focusing on throwing their Mardi Gras Day Ball at Pelican Pub in Slidell.

Several C4SS writers attended, including Alex McHugh, Nathan Goodman, and Logan Marie Glitterbomb. The Ball included music by Warganization and Body Farm, comedy performances from Joey Thibodeaux, Charles-Thomas Vidrine, and Logan Marie Glitterbomb, and drag by Missswillow and Ginger Longbottom. They also continued the tradition of crowning and (mock) executing their Krewe royalty by crowning C4SS coordinator Alex McHugh whom they executed via a guillotine that the Krewe had built together.

For 2023, we plan to go even bigger with Coup de Gras IV: A New Hope. Coup de Gras will once again consist of a five-day C4SS bookfair and unconference alongside the Krewe de Main Mardi Gras Day Ball, but we are also expanding to throw our first ever Coup de Gras Pre-Fest! It will be a traveling pre-fest consisting of a prequel trilogy of shows in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and New Orleans.

In order to make this happen, we need to cover our costs. We need to book venues and the campsite, buy a new PA, pay for advertising, performers, webhosting, graphic design work, etc.

Here is a full breakdown of costs thus far:

• $100 to David Liebe Hart for advertising
• $300 to Fontainebleau State Park for the campsite
• $70 for mascot art
• $48 for web hosting
• $200 for sound equipment / speakers
• $56 for web domain
• Stretch goals: big cookout, projector, more guests/performers