NEW ORLEANS — As festival goers get ready to fill the New Orleans fairgrounds for weekend two of Jazz Fest, Jesse Paige, down at the Blue Nile on Frenchmen Street, is in the thick of it.
“It’s the highlight of the year,” said Paige. “Over a two-week period, we’re doing about 26 shows. Each one of those shows has five to ten musicians on the stage.”
The live music bar may be about three and a half miles from the fairgrounds, but like at other music venues across the city, there’s more than one way to experience some festing.
“We know people that don’t even go to the fairgrounds. They come and they go to all the night shows because that’s where a lot of the magic happens,” said Paige.
Paige says night shows are a way for folks to still get festive without all the festival worries, like crowds, lines, expenses, or weather worries.
“There’s a lot of benefits to it. You’re going to see things you wouldn’t normally see, maybe, at the fairgrounds,” said Paige.
Because music festivals in New Orleans are all about grids to map out musical acts, there’s a website to create your own. The website jazzfestgrids.com, which touts itself as ‘nearly world famous,’ is a one-stop shop for the who, what, where, and when of musical acts hitting stages around the city.
“The benefit of having Jazz Fest is that it brings so many people together from all over the world and that includes the musicians, so you never know who’s going to walk in the door,” said Paige.
Some of those artists are even set to perform at Jazz Fest. If you miss Kermit Ruffins or Soul Rebels this weekend, both will be on Frenchmen Street. All that music, and the crowds that follow, help fill a gap for music clubs as the slow season approaches.
“Jazz Fest is that little economic boost that gets us through the summer and that’s why it’s so important to us. Plus, we get to showcase our musicians that play here all year round to a national audience,” said Paige.
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