Popeyes fried chicken has become an informal parade-day tradition for many spectators in the New Orleans area because it is portable, shareable, and wide availablity along parade routes.
Popeye’s Chicken originated in the New Orleans area.  Formed in Arabi, Louisiana in 1972,  Al Copeland opened his first store on June 12th as “Chicken on the Run”. This restaurant failed several months later and closed it’s doors permanently.  Four days after closing Chicken on the Run, Copeland reopened as Popeyes Mighty Good Chicken.  By 1975,  the restaurant was renamed Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken, named after the character Popeye Doyle, a fictional detective in the movie The French Connection.

In 1976,  Copeland began franchising his restaurants, mostly in the New Orleans area.  Since then,  the Popeyes brand has expanded over 5400 restaurants across 51 countries, including 48 US states. The brand was sold by Copeland to creditors in 1991 to clear debts from the purchase of Church’s Chicken. Popeyes and Church’s were run under the  parent America’s Favorite Chicken Company, Inc. until 2017, when it was sold to Resaurant Brands Int’l.
Another close connection of Carnival and Popeyes is that the Popeyes sponsored speedboat was featured in parades across the area for a number of years.