French Quarter Festival is a free, annual

music festival A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...

held in early April, located in the historic

French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the (; ; ), is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans () was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Square" in English), a ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. Founded in 1983 with the first festival held in 1984, the festival features primarily New Orleans music, such as

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

, and

zydeco Zydeco ( ; ) is a music genre that was created in rural Southwest Louisiana by French speaking, Afro-Americans of Creole heritage. It blends African and Caribbean rhythms, blues and rhythm and blues with music indigenous to the Louisiana ...

from hundreds of local musicians, as well as food from dozens of New Orleans restaurants. In April 2008, jazz pianist Ronnie Kole recalled the origins of the idea of creating a new event in New Orleans. In the early 1980s, the Mayor's office recruited ten people, nine business owners and one musician, to put together a new festival for the city. With an estimated attendance of over 800,000 in 2019, the festival bills itself as "the world's largest showcase of Louisiana music." In 2020 and 2021, however, the event was cancelled in light of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with hope for a return in April 2022. During French Quarter Festival, more than 20 stages throughout the French Quarter perform local music and represent genres from traditional and contemporary jazz to R&B, New Orleans funk, brass bands, folk, gospel, Latin, Zydeco, classical, cabaret, and international. As of 2021, French Quarter Festival, Satchmo Summerfest, and Holidays New Orleans Style are formally overseen by the nonprofit French Quarter Festivals, Inc., which as of 2017 is led by CEO Emily Madero. In February 2022, French Quarter Festival announced a return in April 2022. The 2022 event will take place April 21–24, 2022.

References

External links

French Quarter Festivals Inc. Webpage

NOLA.com articles on French Quarter Fest
Music festivals in Louisiana French Quarter Jazz festivals in Louisiana Music festivals established in 1984 Blues festivals in the United States Festivals in New Orleans {{Music-festival-stub

See also

References

External links