NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The GLBT community painted the town pink and green last weekend, just days after the ceremonies that marked the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Jonathan Bray, an organizer of Southern Decadence, and others saw the festival – a weekend-long gay and lesbian tradition known for its parties and parade featuring flamboyant costumes – as a step in the rebirth of a city deluged by floodwaters one year ago.

“This time last year, we didn’t know whether the city was going to survive; nobody knew,” Bray said. “It’s been a tremendous uphill battle to exist here in New Orleans, and this is a significant achievement to have Southern Decadence again.”

Tens of thousands of people attended the event, whose opening activities took place Aug. 31. Last year, Southern Decadence attracted a small number of diehards in spite of the flooding in much of New Orleans, Bray said. The French Quarter, the anchor of the festival, was untouched by floodwaters.

Before Katrina, Bray estimated Southern Decadence attracted about 100,000 people. A spokesperson for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau did not have attendance figures.

In the past, the event also has drawn protests. Grant Storms of The Reformer Church in Marrero said prior to the festival he expected a few street preachers in the area, but did not plan to attend personally. “We’re more concerned about building the city of New Orleans on a moral foundation,” he said.

For Bray, who also manages a pub in the French Quarter, the biggest challenge this year has been letting people know the Quarter and other tourist attractions are open for business. That challenge is shared by local tourism officials, eager to let people know New Orleans is “almost like a tale of two cities” – with outlying neighborhoods either devastated or rebuilding, and a tourist district open and ready for customers, said Kelly Schulz of the tourism bureau.