During the 1887 Carnival season the New Orleans bicycle clubs organized a “Bicycle Pageant on St. Charles Avenue.” The event attracted wheelmen from Georgia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas, Florida, and Arizona. The pageant, or parade, took place just after sundown and featured a stunning array of cycles of every description elaborately decorated with Chinese lanterns. “Just before dark the people began to congregate on the avenue,” reported one newspaper, “and both sides, from Calliope Street to Louisiana Avenue, a distance of about two miles, was jammed with anxious spectators, who awaited the appearance of the illuminated flyers, who could be seen coming down the avenue many squares ahead of where one stood. The balconies along the route of the pageant were crowded with ladies, and presented a very pretty picture.”