Weekend Report #3

And now, the MAIN EVENT!  All of the fun so far was merely an appetiser for Saturday and Sunday at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which IMHO is a better reason to visit the Big Easy than  Mardi Gras.  This year marked the 42nd year of the fest and the third year in a row for me; while it was an annual excursion during my college days, most of my years from 82 -2006 were spent away from Louisiana.  If you like great live music or great food or spending the day hanging out with friends, put this on your must do list.

The weather was perfect > sunny breezy and mid 80's with no rain in the forecast, so armed with plenty of sunscreen and the loaner power chair supplied by the ALS Association, we headed for the Fairgrounds.  For the PALS and CALS who read this, I have to share how handicap friendly this event is.  First, the only on site parking allowed is strictly for the handicapped, it's not cheap but was still less than it would have cost the four of us to ride the shuttle and we were yards away from the entrance.  Upon entering you could pick up a key for the wheelchair accessible port o potties which were plentiful around the grounds and clean because they were kept locked.  Special access sections were barricaded off in front of each stage for the handicapped providing VIP level views of the artists while the tented venues also had dedicated entrances and a widened aisle for wheelchair operation.  All of the food and drink booths had wheelchair height counters and the asphalt paths winding through the infield made it easy to get around.  Being relatively new to using the power chair, I must say the set up made the event that much more enjoyable!

So here's the run down of the musical acts we caught at the fest: Saturday

• Shamarr Allen & the Underdawgs
• Geno Delafose & French Rockin Boogie
• James Andrews & the Crescent City Allstars
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• Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
• DJ Soul Sister
• Jimmy Buffet
• Fourplay
• and Aaron Neville singing in the Gospel Tent

Sunday's lineup:

• Grandpa Smalls & Playing for Change
• Papa Grows Funk
• Michael Franti & Speardhead
• The Radiators

  The best way to experience food at the fest is to get a little portion of a lot of  different dishes and share them around.  So here's the festival foods list

• Crawfish bread
• crawfish sacks
• oyster patties
• softshell crab po boys
• cracklins
• shrimp flauta
• crawfish beignets
• pheasant & andouille gumbo
• crawfish Monica
• fried green tomatoes
• seafood stuffed mushrooms
• key lime tarts
• strawberry shortcake

One of the special treats of the Jazz Fest is when musicians get together with friends for unique one time performances.  We saw Sonny Landreth and Alan Toussaint with Jimmy Buffet, Amanda Shaw fiddling with Michael Franti and the Radiators farewell performance where they were joined by Warren Hayes, Michael Doucet and the Bonerama horns.  WOW! What a great time we had, save the datess for 2012 April 27 - May 6th, see you there!