Jazzfest: The Experience

Last weekend I had the incredible opportunity to attend 2 days of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for almost entirely free (!). I am so grateful for this experience because New Orleans is an amazing place with a legendary music scene. I had high hopes for this festival and, my friends, it did not disappoint.

Check-in/Security We got to the festival pretty early both days that we went, so the lines were nonexistent. I have no idea what it would be like a little later in the afternoon. It’s a pretty lax festival overall and I don’t think I’ve ever seen chairs or strollers at any other event. Props to the people who actually carried chairs all that damn way. That is more effort than I could ever imagine putting in.

The Crowd Having been to a New Orleans festival before (Voodoo in 2014), I knew this would be a super relaxed crowd, particularly because it draws a little bit of an older group. It was so great being around other music fans who just wanted to listen to some tunes and who weren’t instagramming their entire experience or focusing on their Coachella-ready outfits.

Fun Stuff The event really lived up to the “heritage” part of its name, with New Orleans culture infused throughout the entire thing. From upright billboards memorializing some of the great musicians to come out of the city to tents providing education on the Native American tribes of Louisiana to local food demonstrations, the learning opportunities were abundant. It was less of a “fun stuff” festival in the sense of games or, yet again, Instagram-worthy attractions, but it was entertaining and content-rich at the same time.

WaterTo be honest, I don’t really know what the water situation was. Part of the amazing trip I was on included a sponsored tent that provided food and drinks, including bottles of water (and beer and wine!).

LayoutOne of the smartest festival layouts I’ve seen. It takes place inside a race track, so most things are all in the center and there’s a ridiculous amount of stuff packed into the space. The racetrack on the outside serves as an additional pedestrian walkway to move about the festival, particularly helpful during peak crowd moments.

TransportationThere isn’t a ton of public transportation in New Orleans, but the festival (as well as many hotels) offers shuttles from points throughout the city. Our shuttle dropped us off about a 10 minute walk away from the event and even at that relatively close distance we didn’t encounter much traffic, which seems impossible to the point of being almost magical.

PriceTickets to Jazzfest are only $70 a day! I think cheaper if you buy earlier, and cheaper than that if you buy a single pass for the entire event (which spans 2 weekends). Considering single day tickets to other festivals can run around $150, this is a steal.

BathroomsPretty much the same usual port-a-potty situation, although there were fancy trailer bathrooms near the Jazz tent that were open to everyone (usual those are for VIP). Even at the height of the crowd craziness the line for the nice bathrooms was only around 15 minutes. Cannot complain.

All in all, my trip to New Orleans was super quick but it was just so awesome. Music is the lifeblood of the city and having an event that highlights that really just felt like NOLA bringing its absolute A game. I’m not sure if I’ll ever make it back to Jazzfest but I would absolutely love to try!