New Orleans Jazz Festival: Tips For First-Time Fest Success
Planning your first trip to the famous Jazz & Heritage Festival? Here's everything I learned from my first experience at the legendary music event.
As a live music lover and travel junkie, I’ve had a trip to the New Orleans Jazz Fest on my wish list for nearly two decades.
I’ve read glowing reviews and heard raves from so many people who’ve been to the legendary annual event, all saying that it’s possibly the coolest music festival in the U.S. When a New York Times writer calls it an “institution”, and it’s named “festival of the year” four times by Pollstar magazine, it’s just a must-see on any live music fan’s bucket list.
When I read that one of my favorite bands, The Rolling Stones, would be a headliner on the Festival Stage in May 2024, that was enough to make me finally book the trip and make it happen.
With tickets purchased, airline reservations booked, and hotel reservations confirmed, I realized the easy part of the planning was done. I still had so many questions about fest details and how to make my first visit a great one.
Do we need a rental car? Is there parking at the festival? Where is the festival location? Can we just walk there from our hotel? What can I take to the festival grounds? How do I know what time and where bands are playing? Do I need to stand in line for each event?
I never found one source for all of my questions as a first-time festivalgoer. I picked up some information from friends who had been before, plenty from “official” websites, and even some anecdotes from other travel writers.
Now after returning from my first fest, let me share everything I learned from my experience in May 2024.
A Little Jazz Fest History
The first festival to honor the rich musical history of New Orleans took place in 1970. Featured performers included the legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, a native of New Orleans, and renowned jazz pianist Duke Ellington.
With the general revelry that is always part of the fabric of New Orleans, a brass band and one of the historic second lines paraded through the streets nearby where the inaugural jazz fest was taking place. It was that combination of jazz and local heritage music blended to become the core of the annual festival.
It’s now known commonly as Jazz Fest, but the music comprises many more genres: gospel, brass band, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, zydeco, soul, and a focus on various African countries’ culture and music.
The Fest Is A Village
The annual event takes place over two four-day periods, slated for April 24–28 and May 1–4 in 2025. Since 1972, the festival home is the sprawling Fair Ground’s Race Course, nearly one square mile in size. It’s located about two miles north of the French Quarter (1751 Gentilly Blvd) near the New Orleans City Park.
The size of the festival grounds and the abundance of entertainment, food and drink, art displays, and merchandise vendors make a multi-day visit a must. There is just so much to take in and experience it’s hard to do it all in just one day.
You can buy a single-day admission ticket or the four-day weekend pass for one (or both) of the two weekends of the festival (weekends last from Thursday through Sunday). I paid $365 for the four-day pass, May 2–5, 2024. I attended days one through three, so my average daily cost was $121, and that included three days of internationally known artists like The Rolling Stones, Foo Fighters, Queen Latifah, and Neil Young plus local favorites like Trombone Shorty and Cyril Neville and dozens of amazing local and regional bands and performers.
When arriving at the festival your first day, you can grab a free copy of the 100+ page Jazz Fest “Bible” with maps, daily timetables of performers, and in-depth articles about various bands, musicians, and other featured artists. The helpful information will allow you to “game plan” your time each day to take in as much of your favorite music as possible. Performances take place simultaneously across nine stages. All have festival seating included with your admission.
Choose Your Transportation Wisely
You can get to the festival location by driving, walking, shuttle transportation, Uber/Lyft, or public transportation. But here are some things to consider as you choose what’s best for you.
The Fair Grounds location is in a residential neighborhood and certain streets are blocked off to reduce traffic snarls; however, traffic tie-ups cannot be prevented. Festival hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day and while arrivals may be spread out over several hours, nearly all the attendees are leaving the festival grounds at the same time.
It’s important to know that festival attendance may swell to more than 70,000 people on days with a well-known feature act (like The Rolling Stones), and attendance will be more than 30,000 on less crowded days. That’s more than the crowd of many professional sports venues but the Fairgrounds has no parking garages or massive lots like stadiums or arenas. Tens of thousands of people spill out onto Gentilly Road and the surrounding residential blocks between about 6:45 pm–7:30 pm.
Driving a car and paying for parking somewhere in the vicinity of the Fairgrounds is the least convenient of options for transportation. If you’re thinking of riding the iconic New Orleans streetcar to and from your lodging to the festival (which I initially planned to do), the city does extend the route of the streetcar during Fest dates to include a stop not far from the Fairgrounds. But consider the limited space on the streetcars — they are very crowded.
We had private transportation set up for our large group (10 people) one day that could drop us right at the gate before the fest and pick up about three blocks away from the Fairgrounds on N. Broad Street (ride-share companies also have pick-up spots a few blocks away from the festival site).
With just four of us in our group the other days we relied on the Shuttle Express option, which in my opinion is the best choice. For $24 round-trip, we had a comfortable 25-minute ride to the fest on an air-conditioned motorcoach. We found one of the multiple shuttle boarding locations was just about four blocks from our hotel in the Business District.
After the festival ended at 7 p.m., we waited in line less than 20 minutes to board a motorcoach that picked up within the festival gates to head back to our same shuttle stop on Poydras St.
The Shuttle Express offers multiple departure/return spots throughout New Orleans; tickets can be purchased at the shuttle stops on the day of shuttle departure.
Setting Up Camp At The Fairgrounds
Being a music festival and all general admission (unless choosing a VIP ticket package), the guidelines for what can be brought into the event are not as strict as typical concert venues.
Folding camping chairs, blankets, and coolers are all permitted except when noted. Fest attendees can bring in unopened bottled water but are not permitted to bring in alcohol. Packaged snacks are ok but the several dozen tasty food choices from stands all around the festival are just too delicious not to try.
I had my first taste of a Cochon de Lait (amazing Cajun-spiced and smoked pork) po boy, as well as shrimp beignet, crawfish enchiladas, mango ice, and charcoal-grilled oysters. The food at the Fest may be a little pricier than at a county fair, but the opportunity to enjoy such a large variety of delicious food in one location is worth every penny spent.
The rules controlling what festgoers could bring were much stricter on the day of The Rolling Stones’ performance (due to the huge crowd expected). If you plan to go on a day when a group appears that typically sells out stadiums, read very carefully for the rules on what’s permitted for that day as they will be more restrictive.
Jazz Fest tradition is to set up a camp with chairs, blankets, and a unique, colorful flag or banner flying overhead so that your friends weeding through the massive crowd at the largest stage areas (Festival, Gentilly, Congo) can find you and join your group. The closer to the stage you want to sit, the more condensed and packed the crowd will be by show time. For a little more room to dance, park your blanket, chair, and cooler further back but within view of the jumbo screen and enjoy a bit more space.
Planning Ahead
I learned that the Rolling Stones would be headlining the 2024 Jazz Fest in November 2023 and purchased my multi-day pass online right away. The demand for the tickets was high, and the tickets sold out for that day. Purchasing your passes or ticket, then making transportation and lodging plans as early as possible is recommended. Prices will begin to rise as the city starts to book up.
If your schedule permits, spend a few days before or after the Fest enjoying every delight New Orleans has to offer. The city is jam-packed with live entertainment during Fest dates. Most people know about the famous French Quarter but don’t miss even more great entertainment on nearby Frenchman Street.
For a few hours of non-musical history check out The National World War II Museum, named the Number One attraction in New Orleans. It’s located within convenient walking distance to most downtown neighborhoods and just a few blocks from the Mississippi River (945 Magazine Street).
When you need a respite from all the partying and revelry, enjoy the charm of a ride on the St. Charles streetcar through the Garden District to view the vintage charm of the beautiful and stately homes.
What Would Jazz Fest Pros Say?
Have you been to Jazz Fest a few or even several times? What other advice or tips would you pass along to those dreaming of attending the event and hoping to make it happen in 2025? Leave a comment, tip, or question for all to read!
I went to JazzFest once, and it was fantastic. My buddy is trying to convince himself (and me) to go this year.
If you've never been you're missing out.