"While Staci Rosenberg was watching a male colleague rollick in the 2000 Krewe of Druids parade, a thought came to her that would eventually change the way hundreds of women celebrate Mardi Gras.

''I thought, ‘That looks like so much fun, and there’s not a parade I want to be in,’'' said Rosenberg, a lawyer. When she returned home, Rosenberg started calling some of her female friends, asking, 'If I started a krewe, would you be in it?'”