Many have noted the downtick in attendance at this year’s Jazz Fest―especially the first Thursday and Friday. Overall attendance was about 460,000, down from last year’s total of around 500,000. But last year offered The Rolling Stones’ first-ever appearance at the festival. It was also lower than 2022’s 475,000 tally, but that followed two years of the Festival’s being cancelled.

We can ascribe potential reasons for this downturn―inflationary pressure on household budgets means less travel and leisure spending. Quite possibly the horrific New Year’s terrorist attack had a cautionary impact. And maybe, too, as we mark the fourth annual Festival following two years (2020 and 2021) when COVID played havoc with us all, and cancelled our beloved Jazz Fest, people are lulled, thinking it will always be there next year, and the year after, and so on. I hope it will―but each Jazz Fest is both sister to its predecessors and unique in itself.

So if that last possibility describes your feelings, I urge you to seize your opportunities. Jazz Fest will almost certainly still be with us, but none of us knows whether we will be.

Carpe diem! Carpe musica!

And 460,000 is still plenty of music lovers; the music always raises―and nourishes―our hearts, minds, and souls. It also seems to bring out the best in so many of us, and that’s one of the things I love most about the experience, year after year. I can never get tired of it all.

For the first time in many years, business took me out of town for JazzFest’s first weekend. I hope that won’t happen again any time soon. Normally, I have attended six of the seven or eight (depending on the year’s schedule) days of Jazz Fest, showing up for Fridays through Sundays. This year, I could only make three, the second weekend.

I was thereby spared the dilemma of choosing whether to close the first Friday with Kacey Musgraves, Gladys Knight, Buckwheat Zydeco Jr., or another band, or to hop around. Or, on the first Saturday, choosing among Lil Wayne & The Roots, Diana Krall―if you don’t know how good she is (Elvis Costello does: they’ve been married for quite some years), I urge you to find out―she’s great, the legendary Taj Mahal, and our own Harry Connick, Jr. (who did so much good service for those who weren’t able to get out of the city during the days following Hurricane Katrina―can it really be 20 years ago? It hardly seems possible!).

But those are the dilemmas we New Orleans music aficionados love to have!

I missed out on the great Miss Irma Thomas’ first two appearances, including her main show the first Saturday, on the Shell Gentilly Stage, and what must have been an amazing interview on the Alison Miner Music Heritage Stage the following day. Those were the first two of four appearances the now 84-year-old legendary Queen of Jazz Fest graced the event with. How on earth does she do it? I have no idea, I’m just glad she can and does honor us, year after year. I hope she’ll still be singing for us when she turns 100.

But her second two appearances the following weekend, with The Gospel Soul of Irma Thomas (which was the subject of the interview) my first day there (Friday, May 2) in the Gospel Tent, of course, and as special (so special!) guest for Galactic’s set on the Festival Stage the closing Sunday, were available to this grateful fan.

And if I wanted dilemmas as to closing acts, I sure got them! Sadly, I missed Santana closing the Festival Stage on Thursday, May 1. But the next day one had a choice of Luke Combs, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Wailers, featuring Julian Marley (one of Bob Marley’s musical sons), and, of course, more. Pearl Jam, Laufey, Kenny Wayne Shepherd with Bobby Rush, and others closed the final Saturday, and on that Sunday, competing closing acts included Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Patti LaBelle, and our beloved Kermit Ruffins―with a tribute to Louis Armstrong (New Orleans music, squared!).

Even three days of Jazz Fest is a cornucopia of musical choices―everyone can pick their favorites, and there’s something tempting for every taste.

One young couple showed their JazzFest love by getting married in the Gospel Tent―what a memory they have created for themselves and their loved ones! And for festival goers―the wedding was open to all of us.

Then, there’s always the food―crawfish bread and crawfish Monica, oysters and gumbo in variety, and so much more. Great food is as much a part of New Orleans’ heritage as great music, and, while for me the music is more vital, I would never deny I love the food, too.

But I think possibly the thing I most love about Jazz Fest is the way it brings people together―from all over the world, men, women and children, all races, all ethnicities, with all the variety of tastes music lovers can boast. What we who attend Jazz Fest, even one year of it (let alone the number I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy), share during those hours and days, is the love of music, the spirit of unity no matter how different we may be, and again, the best that the camaraderie brings out in so very many.

That, along with the music, inspires me, year after year.

And will, I trust, continue doing so for many years to come!

We went a three year span, from the Festival of 2019 until that of 2022, with no Jazz Fest, and I felt starved for its return. But now my soul feasts again each new year, and what that means to me is immeasurable.

So, this is another of my love letters to Jazz Fest, New Orleans, music lovers, music makers generally, and Miss Irma Thomas in particular―long may they―and we―all flourish!

What did you enjoy most at this year’s Jazz Fest? Or any Jazz Fest which resonated especially with you?

Please click here to email me directly―I’d love to hear your stories―please share them. Or comment here on the website!

Until next time―

Peace,

Eric