New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival

Attending the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Jazz Fest) has been on our bucket list for eons. While we were living in South Florida, we always attended a similar music and art festival called SunFest in West Palm Beach, the same weekend.

In fact, for many years we catered there, feeding 1,500 to 2,500 people daily in the Club SunFest area and Hospitality Tent. After the catering business closed, I had an artist tent there selling my handmade, one of a kind jewelry.

Then Covid hit, we began traveling full time and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was cancelled a few times. There was even supposed to be one in October of 2021 that we bought tickets for, but that was cancelled due to Covid! We were beginning to think that we’d never get to cross Jazz Fest off our list!

We arrived in New Orleans on January 10 of this year (2023) so we could be here for the Carnival Season and Mardi Gras. Shortly after Mardi Gras Steve asked if I wanted to stay for Jazz Fest. And my response was a resounding YES YES YES. We bought one day passes for each weekend. That was at the end of February.

And before we knew it, the first weekend of Jazz Fest was upon us. Our original plan was to attend on Saturday to hear Steve Miller Band and Ed Sheeran. But there was a torrential downpour on Saturday, so we decided to go Sunday instead.

Sunday was an absolutely glorious day. Sunny, but the low humidity made it a cool day and there was a delightful breeze. We took the bus from just outside the RV Park to just a couple of short blocks from the entrance. It was perfect. No hassle trying to park or paying ridiculous fees for parking. And for some reason, the bus driver let us ride for free going, and it was only 80 cents for both of us returning.

We wandered the Fairgrounds from stage to stage listening to the most amazing music. Tickets are expensive $95/person/day at the gate, but we saved a little by buying them early. I have to say that the value is there. There are 13 stages with performers on each and every one!! We didn’t even get to all of them.

Even the food was amazing. But what would you expect? The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is in one of the greatest food cities in the entire world. One Sunday we started off with Native American Fry Bread that was hot from the fryer and we got to dust it with as much powdered sugar as we wanted. Later we each had Hot Sausage Po’ Boys that were quite spicy. Our mouths were tingling long after we took our last bite! So we got Fresh Lemonade to put out the fire.

For us, the last act we saw was Kenny Loggins on his supposedly Last Tour. He was awesome. But by that time we were so exhausted we could barely stand and we still had to walk back to the bus. We were so tire when we got back to Ladybug, that we almost couldn’t eat dinner. So it was tunafish sandwiches and then B-E-D.

By the time the second weekend of Jazz Fest rolled around we were raring to go! For us, the day to attend was Thursday because that was the day Carlos Santana was performing. It was locals’ day and we heard it would be much less crowded. I have to say, if it was any more crowded you would not have been able to walk! It was also very hot, but we didn’t care.

We went a bit later then we had on Sunday, but we were craving lunch. I had heard from a chef friend of ours, Sue Zemanick. that Smitty’s Louisiana Crawfish Salad Rolls were fabulous. So that’s where we headed before going to the Festival Stage. It was the perfect choice! The soft rolls were overflowing with tons of those sweet little mud bugs that we topped off with a good dousing of Crystal Hot Sauce.

And then we had the challenge of trying to get close enough to the Festival Stage to actually see the stage and maybe have a rail to lean on. After a good bit of weaving through an ocean of festival goers we found ourselves in the perfect spot among some very lovely people. We made new friends and danced and sang along and loved every second!!!

The legendary Buddy Guy played his bluesy guitar like nobody’s business. He was remarkable not only for his talent, but for his longevity. He is 86 years young, soon to be 87 on July 30. While his music is frequently labelled Chicago blues, his style is totally unique. Buddy Guy’s music varies from the most traditional, deepest blues to a creative, unpredictable and radical gumbo of blues, rock, soul and free jazz that they say changes with each performance. It seems that his son is following in his footsteps, so it’s comforting to know that his legendary style will carry on.

While Buddy Guy was performing another artist was also doing his thing, right by where we were standing. Frenchy, a well know New Orleans artist, was working Plein Air to create an image of Buddy Guy. It was such a joy to watch Frenchy paint and dance to the beat of the music. Later, we got to watch work on another  piece while Santana and his band performed. So cool!

And speaking of Santana…he and his band came on stage a few minutes earlier than scheduled and wailed nonstop, performing hit after hit. I was completely engaged in the music and Latin tempo. No one could stand still. Somehow, my energy never waned while Santana was playing. Of course, the fact that he’s one of my two very favorite performers helped. In case you’re wondering, George Benson is the other one of my two faves.

Again, we limped to the bus and headed home. Utterly wiped out but so happy! We are still basking in the glow of our first, but I’m sure not our last New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.