Four-day free music festival features students, second-generation New Orleans musicians

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – French Quarter Festival opened Thursday with 4 days of free stay music throughout greater than 20 phases within the French Quarter, drawing guests from throughout the nation and giving native musicians, college students and distributors a significant stage within the coronary heart of New Orleans. Festival hours are 11 am to eight pm every day, with the opening parade starting at 10 am Thursday.

Festival organizers mentioned this yr’s occasion features greater than 300 musicians and greater than 70 meals and beverage distributors, as crowds carrying folding chairs and suitcases moved by way of downtown Thursday morning. New Orleans and Company mentioned resort occupancy was above 90%, signaling a robust begin to a stretch of festival weekends within the metropolis.

“Lots of good music,” Daniel Barth, visiting from California, mentioned. “It’s really the local bands and musicians who are being featured here.”

Barth mentioned he and his spouse had been again for his or her third French Quarter Fest and deliberate to spend as a lot time consuming as they heard.

“We started with fried catfish and shrimp last night,” Barth mentioned. “We’ll get a little bit of everything. We’ll get a po’ boy, red beans and rice.”

Diane Anderson, visiting from Minnesota, mentioned the festival’s free admission helps make the journey worthwhile.

“It would be hard to fly here, get to a hotel and pay some entrance fees for tickets,” Anderson mentioned.

Alice Glenn, government vice chairman of New Orleans and Company, mentioned the crowds convey cash into accommodations, eating places, venues and transportation companies throughout the town.

“They’re in the hotels, that’s revenue direct to the city,” Glenn mentioned. “Also, that’s going to our venues after the event, going to our restaurants, using transportation. All the services that residents rely on for their livelihood.”

The festival additionally highlights younger musicians. Loyola University is sponsoring the Loyola Esplanade and Shade stage for the third yr on the New Orleans Jazz Museum at Esplanade Avenue and the river.

Jonathan McHugh, a professor at Loyola, mentioned the partnership helps college students achieve real-world expertise each onstage and behind the scenes.

“The ability to get these students up on the stage, plus we have a lot of students working at the French Quarter Festival on many different levels,” McHugh mentioned.

McHugh mentioned Loyola created Wolf Moon Entertainment to provide college students hands-on coaching in stay sound, report manufacturing, music library administration and merchandise. Student performances are scheduled Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The festival additionally showcases the subsequent technology of New Orleans music households.

Michael Mullins, a former Loyola pupil, is about to carry out Friday with the New Orleans Legacy Coalition, a gaggle made up of second-generation New Orleans musicians whose mother and father constructed careers within the metropolis’s music scene.

“All of our parents have been sort of steeped in the culture of playing music in the city for their entire careers,” Mullins mentioned. “And we’ve all kind of been steeped in it ourselves. We grew up listening to a lot of the same stuff.”

Mullins mentioned the group performs New Orleans funk and soul. His father is a member of Bonerama.

“My dad’s the reason I play music,” Mullins mentioned. “This is my favorite, personally. This is the first music festival I have my earliest music memories. My earliest live music memories. This is where I saw my dad play for the first time and knew there’s something magical about it.”

The New Orleans Legacy Coalition is scheduled to carry out Friday at 1:55 pm on the Esplanade and Shade stage.

French Quarter Festival additionally expanded this yr with new exercise in Crescent Park and added phases there. Organizers have mentioned the 2026 festival contains new riverfront area and expanded programming, with PJ Morton amongst this yr’s prime performers.

For locals resembling Courtney Kent, the festival stays an opportunity to see the town by way of guests’ eyes.

“My family is here from Ohio and I’m going to have them try the alligator cheesecake,” Kent mentioned. “You know, when you have people from out of town, you see everything from their eyes. It’s kind of magical.”

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