Category Archives: New Orleans Festivals

New Orleans Festivals

Fall Festivals in New Orleans : September

September 5, 2012 – 5:45 pm

In New Orleans, fall, like spring, is festival season. After a long and hot summer, we are anxious to get outside and enjoy the weather as it turns crisp and cool . To take advantage of this temperate perfection while it lasts, we find a reason to revel in Big Easy culture every weekend of the month.

This weekend, the New Orleans Museum of Art and its adjacent Sculpture Garden host Where Y’Art (September 7^th). The evening will be enlivened by jazz music from saxophonist John Doheny, local restaurant fare from joints like Crepes a la Carte, Green To Go NOLA, and Woody’s Fish Tacos, and of course, art and art activities, all accessible with museum admission.

Next weekend, the Fourth Annual New Orleans Burlesque Festival (September 13^th-15^th), hosted by Harrah’s Casino and the House of Blues, presents enticing dancing talent from around the world, including renowned dancers of the past. In addition to performances, the festival will feature panels, workshops and the Queen of Burlesque competition.

Tags 2012 Fall and Garden Festival, City Park Botanical Gardens, City Park. NOMA, New Orleans Burlesque Festival, Timecode NOLA Film Fest, Where Y' Art | Permalink | Comments Off

New Orleans Festivals

2012 Satchmo Summer Fest

July 30, 2012 – 6:49 pm

Louis ” Satchmo” Armstrong

This weekend, August 3-5, we’ll celebrate the 12^th annual Satchmo Summer Fest, a music festival in the French Quarter at the Old U.S. Mint paying tribute to New Orleans’ favorite son, Louis Armstrong. There are special lectures and seminars on his music and the early jazz of New Orleans, as well as a stellar lineup of performances by brass bands, traditional jazz bands, and jazz bands, all tuned up to show off Louis’ music. And of course, there’s always wonderful food at New Orleans festivals.

Satchmo was born onAugust 4, 1901 (although he claimed to be born on the 4th of July!) The first Summer Fest commemorated the 100^th anniversary of his birth. Armstrong grew up poor in New Orleans. His legal father abandoned his mother when he was an infant, and he didn’t see much of her either. She went to live in the Perdido/Liberty St. neighborhood known as Storyville, home to pimps and prostitutes. Armstrong’s paternal grandmother and uncle took care of him. He briefly went to school, but quit when he was 11 and earned money by singing on the streets with other youngsters and working random jobs.

When he fired a 38-caliber pistol on New Year’s Eve 1913 (probably acquired from one of his “stepfathers”), Armstrong was arrested and ended up in a Colored Home for Boys. Its structure and discipline helped him develop, but he got a real start in life when Peter Davis, his professor who taught at the school, introduced him to the bugle and cornet. He played in the Home’s brass band at picnics, socials, and funerals. Young Louis rapidly absorbed what he could learn from the New Orleans players who were on the scene in those days–Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit, Kid Or, and especially ”King” Joe Oliver. He started playing with Kid Ory’s band in 1919, when Oliver left behind New Orleans. Before long, Armstrong went up to Chicago to play with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, but he soon struck out on his own. Switching from cornet to trumpet, he became a star.

Tags 2012 Satchmo Summer Fest, Louis Armstrong. U.S. Mint New Orleans, New Orleans Jazz Museum | Permalink | Comments Off

New Orleans Festivals

Bastille Day Celebrations In New Orleans

July 9, 2012 – 12:36 pm

And you thought the fireworks were over. Wrong. So very wrong. Because in New Orleans, we aren’t just American. We also are a colonial city, founded by the French and governed by the French and Spanish along the way. That means—another chance for a party, on Bastille Day, July 14! Yes, that’s right, but since it falls on the weekend, we get a few days of fêtes! All in honor of the French ideals of libertê, egalitê, and fraternitê. Which are, after all, ideals we cherish in New Orleans.

The Alliance Française of New Orleans puts on dinner for Bastille Day at Restaurant Galvez in the French Market to start on Friday, July 13, at 8:00 PM. Today is the last day to order tickets for that gala dinner, but if you don’t make it to the dinner, you can check out the fireworks over the grand Mississippi River in Dutch Alley. There’ll be a band, of course. Fireworks start at 9PM. Watch for sparklers in—red, white and blue, of course!

Tags Alliance Française of New Orleans, Bartenders and Waiters race, Bastille Day, French Quarter, Joan of Arch Statue | Permalink | Comments Off

New Orleans Festivals

New Orleans Creole Tomatoe Festival

June 6, 2012 – 12:09 pm

Locally Harvested, Juicy Creole Tomatoes

It seem that all we do in New Orleans is eat, and listen to music, and go to festivals to eat and listen to music. So what’s wrong with that? This weekend’s Annual Creole Tomato Festival, together with the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival, at the French Market combines two of our favorite things-cajun/zydeco music and the aphrodisiac Creole tomato.

The Louisiana state legislature designated the Creole tomato the official vegetable plant of Louisiana in 2003. (Okay, we know it’s technically a fruit, but that’s irrelevant for this discussion. We honor the Creole tomato, no matter what its horticultural designation). We locals look forward to their arrival the way folks in the Midwest do to the first sweet corn. The Creole tomato usually means any tomato grown in southeast Louisiana, typically in St. Bernard and Placquemines Parish in that famous alluvial river soil. They’re “open-pollinated,” and they have a crown at the root! There’s no specific breed as such, although they were originally developed by LSU. (Some sources say it was developed in the West Indies, but who knows?) It just has to do with the soil, and the sultry Louisiana humidity. You can grow your own—if you’re in the right place, with the right soil and climate—from varieties like Celebrity, Better Boy, Fantastic, Monte Carlo, Bingo, Big Beer, and Sunleaper. Slap a slice or two on some white bread, add bacon and mayonnaise, and you’re in summer mode for real. Your host at Southern Comfort Bed and Breakfast loves this sandwich!

Tags Cajun - Zydeco Festival, creole tomatoe, Creole Tomatoe Festival, New Orleans French Market, Old US Mint | Permalink | Comments Off

New Orleans Festivals

New Orleans Festivals 2012

March 7, 2012 – 9:01 pm

Here in New Orleans, life moves to the rhythms of the Catholic liturgical calendar. It’s an old city, with European sensibilities merged with African, Creole, Haitian, all that jazz, with a bit of Anglo-American-Irish mixed in–after all, we did become a part of the United States a while back! Our celebrations follow a familiar pattern-Christmas, then Carnival Season, which begins on 12th Night, the Feast of the Epiphany in many Latin countries, Spain, and Italy, and culminates on the day before Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter. (That’s called Mardi Gras; you’ve heard of it).

Many New Orleanians attend Mass on Ash Wednesday, but Lent is hardly a sacrifice here. Once the ashes are washed off, and the Lenten vows to “give up” something taken, we can move on to enjoy spring.

Typically, beautiful weather in March and April draws us out of doors, to-Festivals! Right now, we’re anticipating the new season–great food, often seafood; interesting music; and just being together to celebrate various ethnic traditions such as St. Joseph’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day. We love to get out our lawn chairs and pack up our coolers in anticipation of seeing our friends at the festival. Apart from the bigger events like the French Quarter Festival and, of course, The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell, there are many other gems.

For example, next week’s Louisiana Oyster Jubilee, in the 300th block of Bourbon Street, is a relatively new festival celebrating a Louisiana delight. Live music, food and the French Quarter come together. You can watch local chefs create delicious concoctions, not to mention build the Longest Oyster Po-Boy.
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Tags Louisiana Oyster Jubilee, New Orleans Festivals, New Orleans Road Food Festival, New Orleans Spring festivals, St.Patrick's Day | Permalink | Comments Off

New Orleans Festivals

Soul Fest – 2012 at the Audubon Zoo

March 1, 2012 – 5:54 pm

It wouldn’t be a stretch to call New Orleans one of the most soulful cities in the United States, and much of the rich culture we have to thank for that comes from the longstanding traditions of the African-American community. The 9th Annual Soul Fest, set for March 3rd and 4th at the Audubon Zoo, is a fantastic way to celebrate the unique history with over 20,000 other guests in a city known as the first to recognize “Free People of Color” following the horrors of slavery.

The weekend event is tailored for families and visitors of all ages and tickets are included with general admission to the Zoo. The sweet sounds of Jazz, Gospel, and R&B will be heard through the day, with performances from the Hot 8 Brass Band, Irvin Mayfield & The Playhouse Review, along with musical tributes to recently passed Etta James, Whitney Houston, and Soul Train’s Don Cornelius.

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New Orleans Festivals

Treme Creole Gumbo Festival, December 10th, 2011

December 1, 2011 – 8:51 pm

New Orleans’ Treme’ neighborhood was a haven for free people of color, Haitian immigrants, and white New Orleanians since the end of the 18th century. The racially mixed neighborhood, situated on the north (lake) side of the French Quarter, was bounded by Rampart Street on the south, Canal Street to the west, Esplanade on the east, and Broad Street on the north. Before there was “Treme’,” the HBO television series set in post-Katrina New Orleans and celebrating the food and music of New Orleans, there was Treme’, a vibrant and intellectually advanced community where Creole artists, musicians, tradespeople, and writers spoke French and congregated in Congo Square, now Louis Armstrong Park. This is where jazz began, folks. In recent times, the neighborhood contributed to New Orleans jazz by producing Kermit Ruffins, the drummer Shannon Powell, and the Treme’ Brass Band, who still perform at clubs in the area.

Tags Authentic Food, Creole Artists, French Quarter, New Orleans Brass Band Parade, New Orleans Jazz, Treme Brass Band, Treme’ Creole Gumbo Festival | Permalink | Comments Off

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