My day at the Jazz Fest!!

This was basically a one day trip, so I will summarize it all in just one entry. I drove to NOLA from Ruston on Saturday 25th, and arrived to the city around 5 PM. After checking in my hotel (see my hotel reviews!), I went to the site of the Jazz Fest, because I wanted to see how far it was from my hotel. It was like a 10 min drive. Not bad. Then I went to the French Quarter for a walk and a beer, but there was not much going on in there. Most people was still at the fest.

So, that was Day 1, it really didn't need a separate entry, and Day 2 started. I went to the Fest just a little before 11. It was still early, so I didn't have a problem to find a parking spot. By the way, the fest gets so crowded that all the people who lives in the neighboring areas rent their own parking spaces for prices that range from 10-20 dlls, depending on how far they are from the fest.

The walking distance from there is about 10 min, so it's not bad!

I had been warned to take a hat, cap, umbrella or something to cover myself from the sunshine, a folding chair and comfortable shoes (I wore sandals)... and I'm glad I took the advises! Would have died without all that! Once I got into the fest, it reminded me a lot of some of the fairs we have in Mexico. Lots of tents, tasty food, art crafts from various places in Louisiana (african and native american art, creole, and some others), and well, at least 5 big scenarios where the music would be played.

The first place I went to, were the food stands. It was close to 12 already and I was very hungry! There was a big selection of Louisiana dishes over there, ranging from typical creole dishes like Gumbo and Jambalaya, to other more exotic like the Alligator Pie that was my choice! I asked the vendor girl if it was really alligator, and she said.

.. "no, it's chicken!..." then she smiled and said... "yeah! It's really alligator! Why would we lie to you?" and I said... "ok I believe you, but if it tastes like chicken, I want my 6 dollars back!" I tasted it, and it was really good! And it didn't taste like chicken!

Then I headed for the concerts. The first one was the Zulu Male ensemble at the Gospel tent. The guys were dressed in very colorful Mardi Gras-like customes, but their music was so-so... nice to see, but I moved to the next event. The next one I chose was the Louisiana Repertory Jazz Ensemble. It was good, but I guess a little bit of too oldie for me... I enjoyed a couple of songs then headed to find a place to put my chair on the Acura stage, where Kinky was gonna play.

I was happy to see Kinky live.

They are a very cool band from Mexico, but they don't play anything close to jazz! So, I was wondering what were they doing here... I tried to find a place as close to the stage as I could... not a lot of people was going to know their songs anyway! Hahaha. I did find a place, and then the concert started... I gotta say they are much better live than in studio. I enjoyed all of their songs! The people was not completely hooked onto them, but for what I saw, most of them liked it. I'm glad. It was good for Mexico to have a band representing in the fest.

After that I saw another latino band, "Locos por Juana", they played more caribbean-reggae music that I'm not so much into. Cool though. Then, I went for food again. That alligator pie was already gone! Now I headed for the crawfish boil! I got myself a big plate of crawfish, and asked the girl who was next to me to take a pict of me with the crawfish.

She was from Bulgaria, first time in the USA and enjoying the fest. Another girl from New York joined us... it was great to meet them! I had a pict with both. Later I met a local guy, he was really cool and we hanged out together for the rest of the fest and later at Bourbon St. The last band I saw at the fest was Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp band... nice creole party music! Loved it!

It was time to leave the fest and head to Bourbon with my new friend. The street was not as full as it is usually, but probably because it was still early... like 9 PM. We just went to a small jazz bar and had a couple of beers. I was absolutely exhausted, but I was planning to go back to Ruston that same night! As I was leaving the city there was a big traffic jam, so I decided to stay in Baton Rouge instead... and so it ended my adventure to the Jazz Fest!