The Top 10 Reasons to Go to Jazz Fest

The are many annual jazz festivals around the world, but the one known to millions as simply Jazz Fest is the one held every April in jazz’s spiritual birthplace. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival attracted a crowd of just 350 in its first year in 1970, but decades later the festival brings somewhere around half a million music lovers to the Fair Grounds Race Course every year. But if Jazz Fest is the Super Bowl of live music, there are also many parties, shows, events, and attractions happening throughout the Crescent City during the festival’s two week span. Major stars often turn up for intimate late night shows, DJ sets, or spontaneous jam sessions, and Live For Live Music’s late night series Fest By Nite will have special events in clubs and theatres every single night of the festival.

Jazz Fest runs from April 23rd to 26th and from April 30th to May 3rd this year, and we’ve put together a guide to some of the can’t-miss moments during both the proper festival as well as concurrent events in the city.

10. Jon Batiste carries on family traditions

It’s no secret that jazz is just one of the many styles of music represented at Jazz Fest now, but the genre that gave the festival its name is still of paramount importance to the annual tradition. This year, one of the headliners is the son of a New Orleans musical dynasty, Jon Batiste, a Julliard-educated pianist and composer who’s become one of his generations foremost caretakers of jazz traditions. Whether in his Oscar-winning score for Soul or solo albums like We Are, which won the Grammy for Album of the year in 2022, Batiste makes transcendent, thought-provoking music that always reflects his New Orleans roots. Batiste will perform on the Festival Stage at 5:10 on April 24^th, curate the “John Batiste presents Swamp” performance in the Blues Tent on April 26th . And veteran music critic David Fricke will also interview Batiste on the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage at 1:45 on April 23rd.

9. The Black Keys give a musical history lesson

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have toured the world for decades with their band the Black Keys, but in recent years they’ve started sharing music with their fans in a different way, with intimate ‘Record Hang’ DJ nights. After the Black Keys’ headlining on the Shell Gentilly Stage on May 1st, Auerbach, Carney, and DJ El Michels, a member of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings who’s in the Black Keys’ touring lineup, will head to the Toulouse Theatre to spin records. Come early for tickets at the door to guarantee entry to hear the Ohio rockers play their favorite vintage funk, soul, and garage rock 45s.

8. Jolynda “Kiki” Chapman and Roderick Harper sing the Great American Songbook together

Stalwart local radio station WWOZ 90.7 FM curates the Jazz Tent at the festival. And one of the more promising sets on that stage will be two great New Orleans vocalists, Jolynda “Kiki” Chapman (daughter of the legendary Topsy Chapman) and Roderick Harper, singing some of the 20 th century’s great duets together at 1:30 on April 26.

7. Galactic’s Stanton Moore brings his friends to the Toulouse Theatre

Drummer Stanton Moore has been the backbone of New Orleans band Galactic’s funky, spontaneous sound since 1994, and he’ll bring together some of his favorite musicians to jam at the Toulouse Theatre during Jazz Fest. The April 30th Stanton Moore & Friends show will feature Robert Walter (The Greyboy Allstars), Will Bernard (Don Cherry, Tom Waits), and Eric “Skerik” Walton (Critters Buggin, Tuatara).

6. Kermit Ruffins pays tribute to Louis Armstrong

By far the most exciting performance scheduled at Jazz Fest’s Economy Hall Tent features one of the Crescent City’s greatest living trumpeters saluting the most important trumpeter in New Orleans history. Kermit Ruffins will perform a tribute to Louis Armstrong in the tent’s last set of this year’s festival at 5:45 on May 3rd.

5. Cha Wa rises up

Last year Cha Wa, the New Orleans band featuring Mardi Gras Indian musicians and vocalists like Irving “Honeyboy” Banister Jr. and “Wild Man” Tajh Derosier, released Rise Up, an album that conjured the New Orleans spirit of resilience and survival on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating impact. And the band will perform that album’s inspiring and invigorating songs the way they’re meant to be heard, live and in person, on the Congo Square Stage on May 1st.

4. Little Feat’s last hurrah

Little Feat was formed in 1969 by a group of California musicians associated with Frank Zappa. But the band quickly became known for a swampy mix of southern sounds and New Orleans grooves on songs like 1973’s “Dixie Chicken,” particularly after the addition of two Louisiana natives, bassist Kenny Gradney and percussionist Sam Clayton. Little Feat has played Jazz Fest a few times over the years, and are making it their final stop in New Orleans on their farewell tour this year, before pianist and co-founder Bill Payne ends the legendary band’s long journey.

3. Herbie Hancock plays on at 86

From post-bop in the 1960s to jazz fusion in the ‘70s and pioneering electronic sounds in the ‘80s, few if any jazz musicians have had longer, more fascinatingly varied careers than Herbie Hancock, who’s still earning rave reviews for his live performances at 86 years old. Arguably the most important of the many jazz giants at Jazz Fest this year, Hancock will headline the WWOZ Jazz Tent on May 3rd.

2. Raye brings a masterpiece to Jazz Fest

Rachel Agatha Keen, better known as Raye, is a British pop star whose music incorporates influences from soul, jazz, hip-hop, and dance music. In March, she released her wildly acclaimed second album This Music May Contain Hope, an ambitious tour de force of heartbreak an optimism, and later this summer she’ll be opening for Bruno Mars in stadiums. In between, she’ll take the Shell Gentilly stage at 5:30 on April 23rd to bring one of 2026’s best albums to life at Jazz Fest.

1. The Meters play for the first time in nearly a decade

New Orleans funk icons the Meters last performed with original frontman Art Neville in 2018, a year before his death. But Meters co-founders George Porter Jr., Zigaboo Modeliste, and Leo Nocentelli recently began playing together again with Cyril Neville from the band’s classic ‘70s lineup and Art’s nephew Ivan Neville, and that lineup will play together for two sold out New Orleans shows during Jazz Fest, at the Fillmore on April 24th and at the Sanger Theatre on May 2nd. Nocentelli will also perform on the Shell Gentilly stage on May 2nd.

Check out the full event lineup for Fest By Nite below:

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

Written by: brownwood-admin

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