French Quarter Fest Friday 2019

French Quarter Fest is easily my favorite festival of the year, which is saying something since we have hundreds of them. With over 20 stages playing indigenous music and 60 local food booths, the festival employs over 1,700 local musicians playing genres from funk, R&B and jazz to rock, gospel and Zydeco. The over 1,500 volunteers and various local companies handling sanitation, security, stages, sound, etc. and more insure that all of the money spent producing the festival remains within the local economy.

I was working on a TV show Thursday so I missed the first day of festivities – which really hurt when I saw the tailor-made-for-me music line up. We started Friday with the Soul Rebels. The fun and funky brass band

Jazz Fest Saturday

It was a gorgeous Saturday for Jazz Fest. Before heading to the stages, we passed through the craft area and saw creative shoebox floats and glittery Krewe of Muses shoes – a prized throw during Mardi Gras. There were also a few Mardi Gras Indians sewing beads and showing off this year’s suits. Big Chief FiYiYi, Victor Harris, showed us the incredibly detailed beadwork. Beautiful. We grabbed a requisite Panorama Fine Foods Crawfish Bread ($7) and Strawberry Lemonade ($5) then tried the refreshing Ajun Cajun Ninja Crab Sick & Cucumber Salad ($5) and Canseco’s Markets Cuban Sandwich ($8).