Kiss Java

While attending the Louisiana Heritage Fair in Beauregard Square, which would later become known as Congo Square, Mahalia Jackson and Duke Ellington encountered the Eureka Brass Band leading a crowd of revelers through the festival. When the festival producer, George Wein, handed her a microphone she began singing along and joined the parade. Thus, the spirit and idea of Jazz Fest began.

George Wein, jazz stage manager behind the Newport Jazz Festival, was hired in 1970 to design a unique festival for New Orleans. His vision was of a large daytime fair with multiple stages featuring a wide variety of indigenous music styles, arts and crafts booths, food booths filled with Louisiana cuisine, ending with an evening concert series. The first festival was only attended by maybe a little over 300 people but the next year thanks to word of mouth the event had burst the seams of the square and in 1972 was move to the infield of the Fair Grounds Race Course. By the end of the 80′s, more than 300,000 people were attending the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Jazz Fest, as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival came to be known as, is now one of the biggest events for tourism in New Orleans . Featuring 12 stages with a range of music from all over the world and covering all genres. over the decades many of New Orleans biggest names have graced the stages of Jazz Fest including Fats Domino, The Radiators, Irma Thomas, Buckwheat Zydeco, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Better Than Ezra, and many more. Even musicians that aren’t locals have graced this event with their individual styles Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Buffett , B.B. King, Dave Matthews Band, Patti LaBelle,The Temptations, and LL Cool J are just a few that have taken the stage.

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