Updated 18 August 2026. Official ball date and court taken from the Mystick Krewe of Louisianians. We do not sell tickets.
We have hosted Washington Mardi Gras weekends for years. The guests who book us are not looking for a street carnival. They are going to the 78th Washington Mardi Gras Ball at the Washington Hilton on Saturday, 23 January 2027, and they want to sleep one block away when it is over.
One block from the Washington Hilton. A world away from a hotel.
What the official ball is (and is not)
Washington Mardi Gras is the annual Carnival ball of the Mystick Krewe of Louisianians. For more than 75 years the Krewe has brought Louisiana’s court, pageantry, and hospitality to Washington, DC. It is a ticketed evening at a hotel, not Mardi Gras on Bourbon Street and not a public festival on the waterfront.
The official 2027 date is on the Krewe’s own calendar: Washington Ball, 23 January 2027. Fat Tuesday in 2027 falls on 9 February. Those are two different days. If you are coming for the Hilton ball, you are coming in late January. Do not plan the weekend around February 9 unless you are staying on for Carnival Day itself.
If you see a March 2027 weekend advertised at The Wharf, that is not the official MKofL ball. Treat any listing that puts the official ball on The Wharf in March as wrong. Hilton ball guests should not be sent there.
Last year’s ball was held in the Hilton’s International Ballroom. The Krewe has not posted a 2027 room assignment on mkofl.com as of this writing, so we will not invent one. The venue is the Washington Hilton, 1919 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009.
The 2027 court
The Krewe’s 2027 royal court is public:
- Chairman and Interim Captain: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District
- King: Pete November, President and CEO of Ochsner Health
- Queen: Peighton Ashley, a pre-med student at Xavier University of Louisiana
That is the court for the 78th ball. Theme, poster, and any later program notes belong on the Krewe site. We will not guess them.
Tickets
Admission is by ticket only. We do not sell them, and we do not quote prices. Membership in the Krewe has historically included the ability to buy ball and dinner-dance tickets; the Krewe posts current membership and ticket rules on mkofl.com. If you are a guest of a member, ask that member. If you are trying to buy your own way in, start at the official site, not at a third-party listing.
Where the Hilton is, and why we are the Washington Hilton B&B next door
The Washington Hilton sits on Connecticut Avenue between Dupont Circle and Kalorama. American Guest House is at 2005 Columbia Road NW, Washington, DC 20009, in Kalorama. The walk is about two minutes. You go out the front door, toward Connecticut Avenue, and you are at the hotel.
That is why this historic B&B in Washington DC fills for this weekend. The Hilton is the right building for the ball. It is a large conference hotel. After midnight it is still a large conference hotel. Our guests want the short walk back to an 1893 house on a residential street.
We have eleven ensuite guest rooms. Not twelve. When the official hotel block tightens, those eleven rooms go early. Book direct if you want one.
What the house actually includes
Breakfast is homemade and served here. It is included with Standard Rate and Last Minute Deal bookings only. Other rates do not include breakfast. We do not do individual dietary catering. If breakfast matters, book one of those two rates.
Check-in is 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm. If you land earlier, complimentary luggage storage starts at 10:00 am. Checkout is 11:00 am. We do not accept children under 12.
Phone: +1-202-588-1180. That is the only number.
What to wear
The 2026 ball was listed as black tie / formal, ticket only. Treat 2027 the same way until the Krewe posts the 2027 schedule: evening formal, and confirm the wording on mkofl.com before you pack. Do not arrive in carnival street costume and expect to walk into the ball.
Getting here from Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle Metro (Red Line) is the useful station. Come up to the street and walk north on Connecticut Avenue toward the Hilton, or cut through Kalorama to Columbia Road. From Reagan National, take Metro to Dupont Circle and walk. From the ball, you do not need a car. You need a coat and two minutes.
Dupont Circle restaurants are on the way home if you want food after the Hilton kitchens close. Embassy Row is the other direction. Either walk is short.
Parking, without the fiction
We have no on-site lot. We have never had free on-site parking. Street parking in Kalorama is residential and often two-hour. If you are driving in for the ball, book a garage on SpotHero and leave the car there. The Hilton has its own valet; that is their product, not ours. Do not plan on an easy curb space at 1:00 am.
The night of the ball, from this house
We know this weekend because we have lived it as innkeepers. Guests arrive in the afternoon, hang a formal dress or a tux, walk to the Hilton, and come back late. That is the whole product: a quiet Kalorama B&B close enough that you do not need a car after midnight, and far enough from the ballroom that you can sleep.
If you get in before 4:00 pm, leave the bags. Walk Dupont Circle or rest in the parlor. After checkout on Sunday, you are on your own clock. We are not a convention hotel with a 24-hour lobby. We are eleven rooms in a house. That is the point.
Do not treat us as overflow for a March waterfront carnival, and do not treat The Wharf as the 23 January ball. If a friend forwards you a “Mardi Gras Washington DC 2027” listing with March dates, check the Krewe calendar before you book flights.
Book the house, not a second hotel search
If you are coming for the Mystick Krewe of Louisianians, the useful dates are Thursday or Friday arrival and a Sunday departure around 23 January 2027. Fat Tuesday (9 February) is a different stay, if you want it at all. A one-night Saturday booking is possible; most ball guests take the extra night so they are not packing a tuxedo at 10:00 am.
Rates are dynamic. We are not hanging a January 2027 discount on this page. Book direct at americanguesthouse.com/book so you are a guest of the house, not a room number at the venue. That is the Washington Hilton B&B stay we actually sell: historic house, Kalorama street, two-minute walk.
American Guest House
2005 Columbia Road NW
Washington, DC 20009
Kalorama, one block from the Washington Hilton
+1-202-588-1180
Sources: mkofl.com, mkofl.com/future, mkofl.com/royalcourt. Article dated 18 August 2026.
