This outrageous display of facial hair configurations made an appearance at the 4th Annual National Beard and Mustache Championships in New Orleans. Luckily Las Vegas-based photographer Greg Anderson was on-hand to give us a front-row seat as the bizarre spectacle of facial hair paraded in front of his camera lens. The championships involved some 150 contestants from the U.S., U.K., and Canada who competed in 17 different categories.

Her name is Aurora, and she is the star of “Aurora's Parade”, the London chapter of ceride – Greenpeace’s global day of action to protest against Arctic destruction. According to DesignBoom, this giant people-powered super-puppet weighs about 3 tons and needs 15 puppeteers and 30 volunteers to operate. Aurora, described as “part protest, part performance”, has fur that includes the names of each supporter in the movement. Greenpeace hopes she will bring the voice and spirit of the Arctic to the public.

A reveler strikes a pose during an unofficial carnival block party referred to as “blocos”, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, February 26, 2022. City Hall banned all blocos, the tightly packed street parties attended by those who cannot or don't want to buy pricey tickets for the official parade at the Sambadrome, due to a wave of the Omicron variant. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

Jewish children in fancy dress during the annual Jewish holiday of Purim on March 12, 2017 in London, England. Purim is celebrated by Jewish communities around the world with parades and costume parties. Purim commemorates the defeat of Haman, the advisor to the Persian king, and his plot to massacre the Jewish people, 2,500 years ago, as recorded in the biblical book of Esther. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

A biker poses on his Bousouzoku motorbike at the Dangouzaka rest stop in Yamanashi, west of Tokyo, Japan, January 3, 2016. Police on Sunday halted a group of about two dozen Bousouzoku bikers who paraded their noisy motorcycles during an annual New Year outing in the Mount Fuji region. This Japanese motorcycle subculture dated back to the 1950s and regularly chafes with the police because of their provocative traffic behaviour and bike customising, that is often deemed illegal. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A woman loyal to the Houthi movement holds a rifle as she takes part in a parade to show support to the movement in Sanaa, Yemen September 6, 2016. The Saudi-led Arab coalition launched a military campaign against the Huthis and their allies in March 2015, after the rebels closed in on Gulf-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in his southern refuge of Aden, forcing him into exile. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

It is said that Torajans are people who “live to die”. For this Indonesian ethnic group, funerals are such extravagant events that they sometimes attract tourists. Families can postpone burials years (and the deceased are considered sick and hosted at home until the funeral) until the family can raise enough money and gather as many relatives as possible. And then it’s a jubilant multiday social event with a parade, dances and animal sacrifices. Agung Parameswara photographed these funerary practices when he traveled to South Sulawesi province, where the Torajans live. (Photo by Agung Parameswara/The Washington Post)

Soma-Nomaoi is a festival that recreates a battle scene from more than 1,000 years ago. It is annually held for 4 days from July 22 to 25 in Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the eastern part of Japan. In this historical event, 600 mounted samurai in traditional Japanese armor, with long swords at their side and ancestral flagstaffs streaming from their backs, ride across open fields. Soma-Nomaoi has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Photo: A young woman (C) clad in samurai costume leads other local poeple as she rides her horse during a parade at the annual Soma Nomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 28, 2012. The traditional full-scale festival kicked off for the first time after the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant following the massive earthquake and the tsunami on March 11, 2011. (Photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP Photo)