Scenes from the French Quarter: the Best Moments of the Red Dress Run
By James H. Sterling
The spectacle traces its roots back to southern California in 1988, when an attendee arrived at a gathering of the San Diego Hash House Harriers wearing an inappropriate red evening gown after being misled about the day's itinerary. Rather than sit on the sidelines, she ran the entire hash course in the dress. The ritual quickly spread across international chapters, finding its natural spiritual home when the New Orleans Hash House Harriers adopted the concept in the mid-1990s.
New Orleans took a simple inside joke and expanded it into an anchor of the summer festival calendar. In an era when most Southern cities shut down street festivities during late summer, the Crescent City costume tradition turned seasonal downtime into an economic driver. What began as a modest run among a few dozen hashers now draws regional travelers and costumers from across the United States, keeping hotels and dining rooms humming through early August.
James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.
