NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – French Quarter Festival opened Thursday with 4 days of free dwell music throughout greater than 20 levels within the French Quarter, drawing guests from throughout the nation and giving native musicians, college students and distributors a significant stage within the coronary heart of New Orleans. Festival hours are 11 a.m. to eight p.m. each day, with the opening parade starting at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Festival organizers stated this yr’s occasion features greater than 300 musicians and greater than 70 meals and beverage distributors, as crowds carrying folding chairs and suitcases moved by way of downtown Thursday morning. New Orleans and Company stated lodge occupancy was above 90%, signaling a powerful begin to a stretch of festival weekends within the metropolis.
“Lots of good music,” Daniel Barth, visiting from California, stated. “It’s really the local bands and musicians who are being featured here.”
Barth stated he and his spouse had been again for his or her third French Quarter Fest and deliberate to spend as a lot time consuming as listening.
“We started with fried catfish and shrimp last night,” Barth stated. “We’ll get a little bit of everything. We’ll get a po’ boy, red beans and rice.”
Diane Anderson, visiting from Minnesota, stated the festival’s free admission helps make the journey worthwhile.
“It would be hard to fly here, get a hotel and pay some entrance fees for tickets,” Anderson stated.
Alice Glenn, government vice chairman of New Orleans and Company, stated the crowds deliver cash into motels, eating places, venues and transportation providers throughout the town.
“They’re in the hotels, that’s revenue direct to the city,” Glenn stated. “Also, that’s going to our venues after the event, going to our restaurants, using transportation. All the services that residents rely on for their livelihood.”
The festival additionally highlights younger musicians. Loyola University is sponsoring the Loyola Esplanade and Shade stage for the third yr on the New Orleans Jazz Museum at Esplanade Avenue and the river.
Jonathan McHugh, a professor at Loyola, stated the partnership helps college students acquire real-world expertise each onstage and behind the scenes.
“The ability to get these students up on the stage, plus we have a lot of students working at the French Quarter Festival on many different levels,” McHugh stated.
McHugh stated Loyola created Wolf Moon Entertainment to offer college students hands-on coaching in dwell sound, file manufacturing, music library administration and merchandise. Student performances are scheduled Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The festival additionally showcases the subsequent technology of New Orleans music households.
Michael Mullins, a former Loyola scholar, is ready to carry out Friday with the New Orleans Legacy Coalition, a bunch made up of second-generation New Orleans musicians whose mother and father constructed careers within the metropolis’s music scene.
“All of our parents have been sort of steeped in the culture of played music in the city for their whole careers,” Mullins stated. “And we’ve all kind of been steeped in it ourselves. We grew up listening to a lot of the same stuff.”
Mullins stated the group performs New Orleans funk and soul. His father is a member of Bonerama.
“My dad’s the reason I play music,” Mullins stated. “This is my favorite, personally. This is the first music festival I have my earliest music memories. My earliest live music memories. This is where I saw my dad play for the first time and knew there’s something magical about it.”
The New Orleans Legacy Coalition is scheduled to carry out Friday at 1:55 p.m. on the Esplanade and Shade stage.
French Quarter Festival additionally expanded this yr with new exercise in Crescent Park and added levels there. Organizers have stated the 2026 festival contains new riverfront area and expanded programming, with PJ Morton amongst this yr’s high performers.
For locals comparable to Courtney Kent, the festival stays an opportunity to see the town by way of guests’ eyes.
“My family is here from Ohio and I’m going to have them try the alligator cheesecake,” Kent stated. “You know, when you have people from out of town, you see everything from their eyes. It’s kind of magical.”
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