Friday-Sunday, April 29 and 30, May 1, And May 6-8
Eating At The New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival
In exactly the same way.
A long-held belief among people who have festivalled every year for decades is that the most memorable music is from the most obscure acts on the smallest, most remote stages. Even with the coming of extremely big names at the JazzFest, this remains valid.
It’s also true of the food. Almost none of the food vendors are chefs or restaurateurs. Most of the food is prepared by cooks whose main business is appearing at other festivals. Some of them have no food involvement outside the Jazz Festival.
Nobody misses the chefs. Although it’s certainly true that some of the food at the Festival is a little too homestyle, that adds a certain authentic charm to the “heritage” work in the festival’s name.
In the past few years of the Jazz Festival, the food offerings seem to have reached a plateau. A few new vendors appear, but they fade into the familiar array. It’s been a long time since I’ve found something alarmingly new and different.
But, again, isn’t this what we want from the Festival? It’s certainly true of us Baby Boomers, who were just reaching the age of majority at the time of the first JazzFest in 1970. It’s a ritual, with our strange kind of hippie nostalgia. Enough other things have changed in our lives without the Jazz Festival’s becoming unfamiliar, too.
Two other pieces of advice: Don’t stuff yourself, or you’ll be too full to try the delicious-looking item you’ll inevitable encounter. And bring plenty of money.
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