New Orleans Jazz Festival - Jazz Fest

Mahalia Jackson, often called the greatest gospel singer, returned to her hometown to appear at the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April of 1970. While attending the Louisiana Heritage Fair in Congo Square (then known as Beauregard Square), she and Duke Ellington, who also appeared at the event, came upon the Eureka Brass Band leading a crowd of second-line revelers through the Festival grounds. George Wein, producer of the Festival, handed Ms. Jackson a microphone, she sang along with the band and joined the parade…and the spirit of Jazz Fest was born.

This spontaneous, momentous scene—this meeting of jazz and heritage—has stood for decades since as a stirring symbol of the authenticity of the celebration that was destined to become a cultural force.

From the very beginning, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was envisioned as an important event that would have great cultural significance and popular appeal. The Festival was the culmination of years of discussions and efforts by city leaders who wanted to create an event worthy of the city’s legacy as the birthplace of jazz. A couple of other festivals were held in the years leading up to the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, but those events, different in format, did not take hold as the Jazz & Heritage Festival would.

In 1970, George Wein, jazz impresario behind the Newport Jazz Festival and the Newport Folk Festival (begun respectively in 1954 and 1959) was hired to design and produce a unique festival for New Orleans. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit organization, was established to oversee the Festival.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, often known as Jazz Fest, is an annual celebration of the music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana.
The Festival has been held yearly since 1970 when it was founded by George Wein; similar "New Orleans Jazz Festival"s were held by different organizers in the 1960s. The first two festivals were held at the City's Municipal Auditorium and adjoining Congo Square. More recent festivals have been held at the New Orleans Fairgrounds, a venue whose main other use is for horse racing.

According to the Jazz Fest website, "The Festival celebrates the indigenous music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana, so the music encompasses every style associated with the city and the state: blues, R&B, gospel music, Cajun music, zydeco, Afro-Caribbean, folk music, Latin, rock, rap music, country music, bluegrass and everything in between. And of course there is lots of jazz, both contemporary and traditional."[1]
The Festival also features vendors with local foods and crafts. In addition to the performance stages, there is an interview stage where Festival goers can hear musicians being interviewed. There are also exhibits of crafts and photography related to local music and culture.

It is currently held during the day at the Fairgrounds on two weekends, the last in April (from Friday through Sunday) and the first weekend in May (from Thursday through Sunday). On a few occasions, severe rainstorms have closed individual days of the festival. In addition to the Fairgrounds events, the Festival also holds various night concerts at other venues. The festival is a major tourism destination, with an importance for New Orleans only rivaled by Mardi Gras. In addition to the official Jazz Fest events, many other music events take place around the city than usual during Jazz Fest and the week in between the two weekends. Early Jazz Fests featured almost exclusively local acts; as the Festival grew more nationally known acts (most recently Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen) were scheduled in addition to local performers.
The Festival is produced by Quint Davis. The Jazz & Heritiage Festival is run by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, which also owns the licence to radio station WWOZ.
More information on New Orleans Jazz Festival, please visit Wikipedia.