NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will have a delayed opening after a round of strong storms passed through and soaked the area Friday morning.
Fest organizers tweeted that gates would open at 11:30 a.m., a 30-minute delay from the normal opening time.
In addition, the Jazz Fest Express that operates at the Wisner Blvd./City Park location will not operate Friday due to the weather. The downtown locations - Sheraton New Orleans Hotel and Steamboat Natchez dock, are operational.
The storms, which cropped up around 8:15 a.m., were on top of some heavy rain that came through around midnight.
This year’s festival has had mostly good weather with a couple of bouts of rain last weekend and once Friday’s rain is out of the way, the weekend is expected to be good – if really, really warm.
Among Friday’s highlight performers are: Black Crowes, Elvis Costello, Ludacris, Box Scaggs, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Big Freedia.