Photo: KOMO, Seattle

All of these issues plague musicians every single day. It’s particularly worrisome since many of them cannot park their vehincles close to their jobs on Bourbon or Frenchmen, or even close to the venues or bars where they may perform. It’s one of the many problems that musicians have to endure just to make a living. Think about all the musicians who play in venues, bars, music clubs and theaters around the city. It’s more often than not a detriment to their performing their jobs properly (yes, playing music is a job) and even arriving on time for a gig. For decades, musicians have had to try to find a place to park or even to stop to drop off their instruments at the placewhere they are playing. For decades, the city of New Orleans, which touts itself as a “music city,” has not addressed this problem for the musicians and bands who help to create the city’s reputation as a music city.

Here we have an article written by Julia Heath of the city’s Office of Nighttime Economy (O.N.E) addressing solutions that O.N.E.. has been working on to help to solve this issue, especially by using other cities’ model solutions. New Orleans has the ability to solve this problem, and it should be easy…

Musician Parking Is Treated Like Rocket Science (It Should Be a No-Brainer)

A universal music industry need that is almost universally ignored.

If you’ve ever watched a band load into a venue in a city, you’ve seen the problem.

They circle the block looking for somewhere, anywhere, to stop. Eventually, they park blocks away, or across the street, or they double-park and hope they don’t get ticketed. They haul guitars, lighting rigs, amps, drum kits, and merch through traffic, across intersections, and down sidewalks, dodging vehicles, pedestrians and cracked concrete. Sometimes they pay out of pocket for a rideshare just to get their gear to the door.

At the end of the night, they do it all again, but this time in the dark, carrying equipment and potentially cash from tips back to wherever they managed to leave their vehicle, sometimes alone and at risk of being robbed.

Musicians show up to work. They bring equipment. They need space to unload and somewhere to park. That’s it. That’s the problem. And yet, in city after city, this extremely normal operational reality is treated like a logistical impossibility.

Which is why it’s genuinely wild that Seattle is the first city in the United States to implement a true, functioning musician parking and loading program. Not because Seattle is uniquely known as a “music city,” but because this should be (and could be) the lowest-hanging fruit for any city that claims to support live music.

This Is Not a Niche Issue

Musician parking and loading affects every level of the live music ecosystem:

• • • A solo artist arriving in a personal vehicle with a guitar.
    • A local band hauling drums, amps, and merch in a van.
    • A touring act pulling up in a bus with a trailer.

Venues and musicians of all sizes face some version of the exact same problem every single day. And yet, most cities ignore these very real operating challenges and leave venues left to try to come up with their own (sometimes unsafe) solutions.

The result is predictable:

• • • Musicians circle the block looking for legal curb space.
    • Gear gets unloaded in unsafe or illegal conditions.
    • Artists get ticketed or towed while literally doing their jobs.
    • Venues absorb fines, delays, and frustrated crews.
    • Everyone begrudgingly accepts this as “just the way it is.”

And on top of being annoying, fines and parking tickets are expensive. One Seattle venue operator estimated that the city’s new musician parking program would save them around $45,000 per year in fines, delays, and other operational interruptions. That’s real, meaningful money lost simply because cities haven’t solved a solvable problem.

Seattle’s Music Venue Parking Zones: A Common-Sense Solution

Seattle’s Music Venue Zone program is exactly the kind of simple, common-sense solution every music city should have had years ago. Under the program managed by Virginie Nadimi, qualifying music venues can apply for a Music Venue Zone permit, which gives them up to three designated street spaces near their venue reserved for musician parking and loading 24/7. These are real curb spaces with signage and can be used for personal vehicles, touring buses, and anything in between.

How it works (taken directly from SDOT’s website):

• • • Each venue can get one permit, which allows three Music Venue Zones Spaces. The zones are available 24/7 for parking and loading for musicians and their crews.
    • Vehicles in these spaces without a permit will be ticketed and towed.
    • The permit costs $250 per year.

Like I said, this isn’t rocket science. It’s the City listening to feedback from their music venues and creating a solution.

Photo provided by O.N.E.

New Orleans: When Policy Exists but Functionally Doesn’t Work

Back in 2019, New Orleans updated its city code to allow for Musician Loading Zones, which were supposed to permit a vehicle to park for up to 15 minutes for loading/unloading equipment before and after shows at venues with a Mayoralty Permit.

On paper, it sounds supportive. In practice, it doesn’t function the way musicians or venues actually need it to. To be clear, there are three Musician Loading Zones in New Orleans (and over 120 Live Entertainment permits currently active).

The program is built on a key assumption: that a venue already has a pre-designated freight loading zone that can also be used for musician loading with additional signage installed. But that assumption is hugely incorrect— most venues don’t have freight loading zones in locations that make sense for load-in. If they exist at all, they’re often placed based on general delivery needs, not where bands are actually entering the building and not where load-in can happen safely and efficiently.

Even for venues that do have a freight zone in an ideal place, there are still problems. After loading in, musicians need to move their vehicles somewhere else to park. So the process becomes fragmented: find the loading zone (if it’s available), hope no one is illegally parked in it, unload quickly, then re-enter the same unpredictable parking environment to find a legal place to leave the car for the duration of the show.

Like I said, there are three of these zones in New Orleans, and they aren’t even being used.

Wait, Why Can’t Cities Just Fix It?

On its face, this should be simple: identify a few curb spaces near venues, designate them for musician loading, and move on.

But in the world of City planning, permitting, and enforcement, everythinggggggg is complicated.

In many cases, even small curb changes trigger a formal curb use or traffic study process. That usually means issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP), hiring an outside consultant, collecting data on parking utilization, analyzing traffic flow, and producing a report often over the course of months, sometimes years. By the time a recommendation comes back, everyone better hope the individuals inside City Hall championing certain issues are still around, or the issue will again be ignored.

Then there’s the political layer:

• • • Nearby businesses may push back over the loss of a few parking spaces.
    • Residents may raise similar concerns.
    • Internal departments (transportation, permitting, enforcement, etc) may have competing priorities or conflicting interpretations of how curb space should be used and might have a negative response to being asked to add a new responsibility to their plate.

None of these concerns are inherently unreasonable (sometimes), but taken together, they create a process where a relatively small, targeted fix gets treated like a major infrastructure decision. And that’s the disconnect. Because while cities are studying, debating and negotiating over a handful of curb spaces, musicians are still double-parking, unloading in unsafe conditions, and getting ticketed for doing their jobs.

This is where confusion and prioritization intersect. Policymakers don’t always fully understand the day-to-day realities of live music operations, and because the issue doesn’t feel urgent compared to other demands, it gets slowed down, studied, deprioritized, and then, sometimes, forgotten.

In Conclusion: This Should Be Easy

At the end of the day, this is not a complicated problem. Cities already manage curb space for rideshares, handicap parking, deliveries, construction, film production, parades, and major events. They designate zones, enforce rules, and adapt when something isn’t working. The idea that musician parking is somehow too complex to solve just does not make sense.

What’s actually happening does make sense, as frustrating as it is. Live music operations are misunderstood, deprioritized, and are at the liberty of systems that aren’t built to respond quickly to real-world needs.

But a functional program is not complicated! At the risk of oversimplifying, it really only needs:

1. 1. 1. Designated curb space near venues, clearly marked.
      2. Predictable (probably annual) permits, with clear requirements and application timelines
      3. 24/7 access that reflects real venue load-in and load-out schedules.
      4. Clear outreach and education so musicians and venues know it exists.
      5. Enforcement training and alignment so the policy actually means something and if someone illegally parks in one of these spaces, it is dealt with.

None of this is radical or expensive (in fact, it could be used as a revenue generating tool for cities). It just requires cities to treat musicians like workers whose labor has physical requirements.

Seattle didn’t solve everything. But they proved that when a city listens, coordinates internally, and prioritizes an industry they say they value, something that has been treated as complicated for decades can be resolved with a few curb spaces, clear signage, and aligned enforcement. The bar really is that low, but until more cities meet it, musicians will keep doing what they’ve always done—figuring it out themselves, absorbing the costs, and navigating systems that weren’t designed with them in mind.

The post Musician Parking Is A Real Need That Can Be Easily Solved appeared first on OffBeat Magazine.

Julia Heath, Policy and Outreach Manager for O.N.E., who is highly experienced in developing music policy along with director Michael Ince, has written a great substack piece on what could happen in New Orleans, if O.N.E. can continue its mission successfully. She is a woman after my own heart who can see the difference that government can bring to the table vis a vis music community development and successful policies that impact everyone in the music ecosystem.

Pay attention! Here’s an excerpt from her latest communiqué:

Lack of funding, policies that almost happen and then don’t, City staff with vision who burn out and leave, frustrating permitting processes, spreadsheets, meetings with people with personal agendas, explaining the value of investing in music over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

If you work in or around government long enough, it becomes so easy to lose sight of what any of it is actually for. At a certain point, I realized I needed something clearer – a way to cut through the noise and remind myself why any of this matters. Not in policy language, but in real life. So I wrote this:

Imagine New Orleans in 2035.

You’re walking down Frenchmen Street and see musicians unloading gear with ease into venues that are protected forever by a cultural land trust. A few blocks away, a recording studio founded by recent college grads is hosting a listening party for a rising hip-hop artist. At a late night community café, a jazz trio plays in a pop-up showcase using a limited performance permit that allows non-traditional venues to host live music without excessive red tape.

This isn’t a rare night. It’s just another Thursday.

What made this possible wasn’t just creativity or tradition – it was commitment. A decade ago, New Orleans made the decision to stop taking music for granted and to treat it as essential. Through the implementation of a $1/ticket Music Industry Development Fee on large-scale concerts and events, the city established the Music Industry Development Fund, a self-replenishing public investment tool that now supports artists, local showcases, venue preservation, licensing education, and professional development programs. This Fund has not only stabilized our music economy, it has created new engines of revenue, tourism, music export, and job creation.

Today, music businesses are being started, and staying, in New Orleans. University students now see a future here, not just a training ground. Artists are finding clear pathways to licensing opportunities, regional touring, and creative collaborations through physical and virtual music hubs. New Orleans-based managers, producers, and independent labels are building sustainable careers, not just off the city’s legacy, but off its renewed ecosystem. What was once informal and improvised now coexists with infrastructure that works without compromising the city’s soul.

Our artists are not just performing here. They’re generating publishing income, launching startups, and creating IP that circulates globally. New Orleans is no longer just “where music comes from.” It’s where music is going. Jazz still thrives, but so do bounce, hip-hop, punk, indie, and genre-defying sounds rooted in the rhythm of the streets.

City government now treats music as a core sector of economic development. Permitting is clear. Mediation works. Venue owners and cultural producers have the tools they need to operate legally and sustainably. And the term “live music venue” isn’t up for debate, it’s protected, defined, and honored. We’ve preserved the soul of this city not by freezing it in time, but by making sure it can breathe, adapt, and keep playing.

This is our vision for New Orleans in 2035: not a monument to what music used to be, but a living, working ecosystem where culture leads, policy follows with purpose, and everyone has a seat at the table.

This is the point. This narrative will vary from city to city, but I think a throughline we can all recognize is that none of this can happen by accident. None of this will happen because New Orleans is recognized as a “music city” by tourists and even by locals. This will happen because of strategy and commitment to work together towards a shared goal.

I wrote the above narrative initially as an introduction to the New Orleans Music Industry Strategic Plan, but it does still stand alone in terms of focus. That project ended up merging into the broader New Orleans Nighttime Economy Strategic Plan, which is divided up into 5 “pillars,” with Music Industry Development being one of them. For those who haven’t read the plan, the Music Industry Development work is broken down into a series of specific tools and programs that span workforce development, policy, infrastructure, and funding.

Take a few minutes to read the plan and pay attention to the strategies contained in it. We need to get proactive, so that the entire city can continue to successfully burnish its reputation as a “Music City.” Since Ince and Heath have run O.N.E., their office has produced numerous helpful and interesting documents geared towards improving New Orleans as a more successful music and nighttime-oriented city, all of which are available on their website. They also have sponsored the New Orleans Music Census, a first-of-its-kind document outlining the state of New Orleans music and musicians from an economic viewpoint.

Another suggestion: require the New Orleans Cultural Tourism fund devote a chunk of money to specifically market the city as a music and cultural mecca to dampen the city’s reputation as a party city. Hopefully, that will entice a different kind of visitor to the city: one that’s more affluent, culturally-minded, and one that will be able to support and enjoy New Orleans as a center of culture, not just party-til-you-drop destination. Our celebrations could be presented more as cultural events, rather than “party city.” New Orleans & Company does use music and culture in its promotional push (their music main push is during NOLAxNOLA in September and October), but overall it’s a small part of the city’s promotion. What I am suggesting is to make it a year-round, specifically-targeted campaign to affluent travelers that includes local music, museums, art, dance and cultural attractions.

To read more about the Office of Nighttime Economy, click here. 

The post Nighttime Economy Office—A vision for the future appeared first on OffBeat Magazine.

Times are getting tough for New Orleans: It has never fully recovered from the blow of the terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in January 2025. While local hospitality businesses, musicians and music venues capitalized on the presence of the Superbowl, it was expected that the city would recover and continue an upward trajectory, welcoming visitors as the city’s main economic driver. But that didn’t happen because of the turmoil created by the current federal administration, and it’s become obvious that it’s gotten worse with the most recent government shutdown that’s negatively affected travel all over the country—something over which we have no control.

We’ve depended on visitors and conventions for as long as I can remember (in years past, the CVB focused on conventions, but in hindsight, putting all of our eggs in that basket has not been the best thing our city could have done). A city’s economy dependent almost totally on tourism as the major support of its economic well-being and tax revenue is at the mercy of the state, the overall economy as well as transportation interruptions. We need a more diversified economy. If nothing else, we have to try to attract a different kind of visitor, one who’s interested in our culture, history, architecture and not getting drunk or high 24/7. We’ve catered to the lowest common denominator of visitor for too long. We should concentrate on changing that. Yeah, we love our ongoing party, but if this mentality isn’t producing good results for the city as a whole, we have to come up with a different strategy.

Additionally, the last mayoral administration seems to have been asleep at the wheel leaving the city mired in a massive deficit situation, which will have to be addressed and remedied by the new Mayor Helena Moreno and the City Council.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell managed to claim a significant portion of the hotel tax revenue from city coffers, which last year was $5 million. We certainly applauded this effort, but it seems to have concentrated more on free money for certain people and organizations, rather than using some of the tax money to build something that will benefit everyone, not just a few people. The hotel tax supports the New Orleans Cultural and Tourism Fund (NOTCF)—renamed a “foundation.” NOTCF is the non-profit that disperses the $5 million hotel tax revenue to culture bearers, organizations, festivals and others. I would expect that revenue to be substantially reduced after this year.

Many culture bearers and creatives have applied for and received grants from the NOTCF— and accounted for half—almost $2,500,000 of the total money in 2024 (latest report available). Recipients of funding over $50,000 included the largest festivals in the city: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival ($95,000), French Quarter Festival ($75,000), “Festivals For Good,” National Fried Chicken Festival ($70,000), “Funky Town Festival Productions” NOLA Funk Fest ($50,000) and more, plus such entities as the Idea Village, NOCCI, the Tulane Educational Fund and many more. See this article for a breakdown of grant recipients over $2,500.

In the meantime, the city’s Nighttime Economy Office (OffBeat has been promoting for over a decade) has been housed in the Mayor’s Office. It’s supported the crucially important New Orleans Music Census and has developed actual information and strategic guides to the music economy. Good for them.

Having been around this city’s business and government leaders since the 1980s, I think there’s something wrong with the NOTCF and the way revenues are used and dispersed. There are lots of rumbling that the NOTCF funds are distributed to “friends” of NOTCF decision makers. No one will say anything publically, of course, knowing that those grants are there for the taking, if you have a good enough relationship with NOTCF people and you fill out a grant application.

The new administration has to have a “come to Jesus” meeting to decide how the hotel tax funds are distributed in the future. Giving out grants to friends and high-profile events just because someone requested it is just not practical or sustainable, given the city’s massive deficit and the decline in tourism.

First of all, the NOTCF’s fund disbursement and annual reports should include information on the actual reason grants were provided to any entity. These should be in a place where the public can see to whom and why grants were given. Info should be accessible to the public on an ongoing basis. That’s not hard to do online. What were the funds supposedly used for? Are there records of how the money was actually used? Shouldn’t that be required? How were recipients selected? What were the criteria? Transparency is key to the credibility of NOTCF funding. Otherwise, the grousing about lack of transparency and favoritism will continue, and I would bet we would be throwing money at people or organizations who may be misusing grants.

Then there’s the probability that there may be wasteful redundancy in the use of the hotel tax funds. Can’t every office that has anything to do with the “cultural economy” be housed in one location—in one office—so that the Nighttime Economy Office, The Film Office, the Cultural Economy Office, with liaisons from zoning and permitting for events, NOPD, New Orleans & Co., GNO, Inc., etc. be contained in one Economic Development Office? Shouldn’t that office be coordinated so that everyone would know what’s going on—to work together more effectively and efficiently? That’s sure not happening now.

And finally, and this is a big one: we need specific goals and strategies to reach them that can be checked-off over time—with the goals specifying measurements that demonstrate how far we’ve come to achieve the objective. The city should set and expect goals to be achieved that can be measured in numbers. For example—and I will use music industry development as an example, since I’ve been involved in it since before OffBeat even came into being. I’ve attended dozens, maybe hundreds, of meetings, conferences, and think tanks over almost 40 years, and I’ve yet to see a real-time established goal that will mean that New Orleans has achieved a level of success in growing its music industry. At this point, there is no definition of what a New Orleans “music industry” is. Isn’t it important to know exactly what we want to be? A music city like Nashville? A tech center like Austin? A live music mecca, like what New Orleans already is? A few years ago, GNO, Inc. paid a consultant hundreds of thousands of dollars to do focus group-based research just to determine (in its final report) that New Orleans needed sync rights agencies. How many of these have been established in the past five years as a result of this proclamation? The ostensible goal was to license local musicians’ music rights to music supervisors in films. Considering GNO Inc. invested a lot of money to determine this goal, wouldn’t it be apropos to delineate the expectations and effectiveness of that investment?

We need goals of what we want New Orleans to be, culturally and economically in four to 10 years. We need solid, definable goals (numbers of businesses, employees, growth in festivals, SA&PC parades, Black Masking Indian funding per gang, etc.) so that we can measure how well we are doing, all oriented towards achieving specific goals. We need to work together for the sake of the city as a whole, not for individual businesses alone. The city does has the ability to create laws and rules that could improve our culture, and our entertainment centers, like Bourbon and Frenchmen Streets.

I have rarely seen cohesiveness in city government, and given the straits that New Orleans finds itself in now, creating and working responsibly towards set goals seems to be the most efficient, savvy and effective way to go. For goodness’ sake, can we stop the surface schmoozing, backdoor dealing, and sloppy practices that continue to sabotage this beautiful unique culturally-significant city? Can we just try to set some laws and practices that will put New Orleans on the right track?

Determine the goals for the next four years, eight years, 10 years. Determine what needs to be done to achieve goals with measurable successes over time that can be monitored and adjusted, if necessary. Evaluate the success based on numbers, what’s working and what’s not. Correct strategies if needed. Achieve the goals.

We can’t continue as a successful city by depending on the schmooze, bullshit, lack of real knowledge and giving away money.  We need tangible results. Throwing money at people, businesses and organizations without demanding results from these grant recipients should be over. It’s not a healthy or effective way to improve or grow anything.  Getting free dough,  based on “who you know” and who you schmooze has to change. It’s time to cut the crap, and get our hands dirty, be ready to work hard—this does not rule out creatives—and to hold people responsible. New Orleanians are in this together and we have to make changes to keep us on the right track to success—but first we have to decide what success is and all agree to set our sights on it.

The post Who You Schmooze Shouldn’t Cut It Anymore appeared first on OffBeat Magazine.

O.N.E. has been pretty busy in the last few months. First, through working with consultant and music business information aggregator Sound Music Cities, they authorized and are maintaining a Music Census, for the city, using it as a basis to assess the strength of the city’s music economy and for planning and growth and to create relevant ongoing programs geared towards the New Orleans music ecosystem. O.N.E. also works for the entire hospitality industry, which of course, thrives at night.

O.N.E. just released a comprehensive 50-page report (available online here) that’s designed to make things easier, safer and more organized for anyone who participates in the city’s “nighttime economy”: hospitality workers (there are roughly 30,000 in the city), musicians, street performers, bars, restaurants, music clubs and venues and more. The Nightlife Business Best Practices Guide attempts to address many of the problems faced by everyone in the nightlife economy, including permitting, zoning, licensing, parking, sample business plans for restaurants, bars and music venues. It includes topics like:

How to Open a Nightlife Business: Step-by-step guidance on permits, inspections and licenses specific to nightlife operations.
Sample Business Plans: Real examples and fill-in-the-blank templates for bars, restaurants and live music venues as well as business plans for musicians and promoters.
Safety & Harm Reduction Tips: Best practices for keeping patrons and staff safe, including Narcan administration and overdose prevention.
Sound, Parking and Public Safety: Recommendations to minimize conflicts, ensure accessibility and operations in compliance with local laws and regulations.
Resilience Planning: Checklists and preparedness strategies to help nightlife businesses stay strong through hurricanes and other disruptions.

There is also a best practices guide for street performers and good parking practices.

The O.N.E. office will also soon announce that it is working with local parking companies to provide up to 1,000 parking spaces for hospitality workers, including musicians to make it safer for them and to provide some relief for people who work for hospitality businesses downtown and in the French Quarter. Users will have to apply through the business for whom they work to verify that they are employed at a nightlife business. Musicians will also be included.

Michael Ince, current director of O.N.E., urged all hospitality workers and musicins to get involved in the parking program. “Currently, we’re looking at about 1,000 spaces,” he said. “If we get those get used, we’ll have leverage to get parking companies to provide even more spaces for musicians and hospitality workers. More information is available on the O.N.E. website.

The O.N.E. office is also working on Musician Loading/Unloading zone formation, among many other projects.

O.N.E. is currrently working on partnerships with the Safe Bar Network to provide complying businesses with potentially lower insurance rates. The office is also entering into an agreement with the Loyola Music Business program to train sound engineers on sound abatement and best practices in classes at the university. The office is also providing Tune Up Grant Programs through a grant from Councilman Joseph Giarruso, III’s office. Hurry, if you are interested because grant applications close on August 31, 2o25. For questions and/or assistance with the grant application, please contact Julia Heath at julia.heath@nola.gov.

The post New Orleans Nighttime Economy Office Releases First-Ever Business Guide appeared first on OffBeat Magazine.

Jan Ramsey

Over the years, OffBeat has grown and changed despite many setbacks. We got through Katrina. We got through COVID (barely). We produced several CDs (that ancient format!) of Louisiana musicians that were used by the Louisiana Office of Tourism to promote Louisiana music. It was a pleasure to be able to honor musicians and music businesses with OffBeat’s “Best of The Beat Awards.” Over the past 25 years. OffBeat created the first-ever comprehensive “Louisiana Music Directory” of musicians, bands and music businesses throughout the state of Louisiana, which was an invaluable tool for the music industry cohort to communicate with each other and to let the “outside world” know how to get in touch with virtually everyone in music and the music business (it hasn’t yet been replicated). Currently New Orleans & Co. hosts a smaller database of musicians and bands. There’s a real need for better communication, not just within the members of the music community, but for everyone. Social media—while supposedly connecting people better—has not done what it initially promised. In fact, it’s created concrete silos of like-minded people who are stuck there and who aren’t interested in experiencing anything but what they feel comfortable with in their own little towers. How can you discover new music and culture if you’re not willing to leave your comfort zone? I also fear for live music, with the profound changes in demographics, the impacts of tourism on music, and again, inferior communication within and to potential music audiences.

All good things must come to an end. Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried to find the entity to take over OffBeat and to further its legacy as media that was created purely as a support and marketing mechanism for our local and regional musicians.

No one has stepped up: print media is in serious trouble—social media is killing it, and the cost to print these days is outrageous and may get a lot worse with tariffs on items you need (like paper). The future of OffBeat’s archives dating from Summer 1988 through January 2025 is also in jeopardy—as we close the business, we will no longer be able to host the website or the archives. It’s a heartbreaking “C’est la vie” situation. My dear husband and partner Joseph, and I are 75 years old and it’s time for us to retire.

So, this will my last Mojo Mouth—at least in the Jazz Fest Bible. I am eternally grateful that I sort of “fell” into this business and was able to help our music community over the past 37 years. Music is life, and don’t ever stop listening.

Thank you for reading and participating in OffBeat over these 40 years. We love and appreciate you.

The post To Honor Irma Thomas appeared first on OffBeat Magazine.

French Quarter Festival is still the only large-scale music festival in New Orleans that presents all local musicians. The event is free which means that the Fest features all the local music that many visitors want to experience: no big-name headliners from somewhere else. The festival promises a stellar lineup of performances on 22 stages located throughout the Quarter, and will include 300+ acts, including returning favorite Anders Osborne and festival debuts Roi Anthony and Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph. This year’s festival will include a Chevron Evening Concert Series, featuring Chapel Hart, The Original Pinettes Brass Band with Mia X, Little Freddie King, and Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters.

Some of the 2025 French Quarter Festival’s most notable debuts include Roi Anthony and “Jelly” Joseph on the Jack Daniel’s Stage, as well as Ryan Batiste and Raw Revolution on the Abita Beer Stage. Making their festival premiere, La Tran-K Band will bring the vibrant rhythms of salsa, merengue, cumbia and bachata, while the Woodenhead 50th Anniversary Band will celebrate their milestone with a debut set on the Tropical Hand Grenade Stage. Featured artists include Charmaine Neville, whose rich voice and warm personality have won hearts worldwide. Returning to the festival for the first time since 2010, Anders Osborne joins the festival for the first time since 2010, and BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, marks their first appearance since 2014. Attendees can also look forward to performances by beloved favorites Irma Thomas, George Porter Jr., Soul Rebels, John Boutté, Kermit Ruffins and many more, as well as the DJ Stage, featuring the legendary DJ Raj Smoove, dubbed “the greatest DJ in the world” by Lil Wayne.

The Loyola University Esplanade in the Shade Stage will be a major focal point, showcasing emerging talents, established performers, and the university’s students and alumni. Also located at the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint, the Louisiana Fish Fry Stage will feature the lively sounds of local brass bands like the Red Wolf Brass Band and Sporty’s Brass Band.

A list of all currently confirmed musical performances are listed below. The full festival music schedule will be announced in March.

French Quarter Festival 2025: April 10 (Thursday)
Bag of Donuts, Ben E. Hunter, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band, Cameron Dupuy & the Cajun Troubadours, Chapel Hart, Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, Corey Ledet Zydeco & Black Magic, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Irene Sage, James Andrews, “Jelly” Joseph, Joy Clark, Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers, La Tran-K Band, Lena Prima, Mem Shannon & The Membership, Preservation Brass, Roi Anthony, The Rumble featuring Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr., Serabee & The Roots Revival Band, Tuba Skinny, Water Seed.

French Quarter Festival 2025: April 11 (Friday)
Al “Lil Fats” Jackson, Anders Osborne, Babineaux Sisters Band, Big Frank & Lil Frank and the Dirty Old Men, Big Chief Juan Pardo’s Tribal Gold, Cupid & the Dance Party Express Band, Flagboy Giz & the Wild Tchoupitoulas, George Porter, Jr. & the Runnin’ Pardners, Grace Gibson, Indys Blu, Jeffery Broussard & The Nighttime Syndicate, Joe Lastie’s New Orleans Sound, John Boutté, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Note, John “Papa” Gros, JustWYN (Kevin Stylez), Keith Frank & Soileau Zydeco Band, Leroy Jones & New Orleans’ Finest, Les Femmes Farouches, Loose Cattle, Magnetic Ear, Malevitus, Mia Borders, New Orleans Nightcrawlers, The Original Pinettes Brass Band with Mia X, Pell, Red Wolf Brass Band, Robin Barnes & The Fiyabirds, Shawn Williams, The Soul Rebels, Sullivan Dabney’s Muzik Jazz Band, Susan Cowsill, The Nayo Jones Experience, The New Orleans Klezmer All Stars, Waylon Thibodeaux Band, Woodenhead 50th Anniversary.

French Quarter Festival 2025: April 12 (Saturday)
Anaïs St. John, Arrowhead Jazz Band featuring National Park Service Rangers and special guests, A Tocar! Bomba de Puerto Rico, Bonerama, Charmaine Neville, Chere Elise, Christian Serpas & Ghost Town, Creative Arts Momentum, Dash Rip Rock, Delfeayo Marsalis & the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, Don Vappie & Banjo a la Créole, Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers, Fermín Ceballos + Merengue4FOUR, Horace Trahan & the Ossun Express, ÌFÉ, The Iguanas, Irma Thomas, Soul Queen of New Orleans, Jam Brass Band , Joe Krown + 1 featuring Papa Mali, John Mooney, Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, Kelly Love Jones, The Lilli Lewis Project, Lisa Amos, Little Freddie King, Little Stompers presents: Roots of New Orleans Music, Loyola University Commercial Ensemble, Loyola Student Group, Muévelo, Original Hurricane Brass Band, Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show, Tim Laughlin, River Eckert Band , Ronnie Lamarque Orchestra with Hot Rod Lincoln, Ryan Batiste and Raw Revolution , SaxKixAve, SOUL Brass Band, Songs for Jr Rangers with Richard Scott, Sporty’s Brass Band, Storyville Stompers Brass Band, Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots, Tim Laughlin, T-Marie and Bayou Juju, Vegas Cola Band.

French Quarter Festival 2025: April 13 (Sunday)
Amanda Shaw, Banu Gibson, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Golden Eagles, Bucktown All-Stars, Creole Stringbeans, The Dixie Cups, Erica Falls, George Brown Band, Gumbeaux Juice, Happy Talk Band, Helen Gillet: ReBelle Musique, Higher Heights Reggae Band, Honey Island Swamp Band, Jeremy Davenport, Johnette Downing – Louisiana Roots Music for Children, Josh Kagler and Harmonistic Praise Crusade, The Big Easy Boys, Koray Broussard and the Zydeco Unit, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Los Güiros, Loyola Student Group, Lynn Drury, New Breed, New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park Kids Stage, NO FEAR Ambassadors (New Orleans Foundation for Experiential Arts Reach), Onward Brass Band, Poisson Rouge, Red Hot Brass Band, Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters, Roderick “Rev” Paulin and The Congregation, Royal Essence, Songs for Jr Rangers with Sam Kuslan, Shamarr Allen, Sweet Crude, Sula Spirit & Asase Yaa’s (Mother Earth) Song Circle, Treme Brass Band, Tyrone Duhon & Double Standard Zydeko, Wanda Rouzan and a Taste of New Orleans, Wendell Brunious, Young Pinstripe Brass Band.

Official FQF ’25 Poster. Artist: Ceaux.

Savor the Flavors: Over 65 Culinary Experiences

Food has always been a huge part of French Quarter Fest, and foodies can indulge in offerings from over 65 top restaurants confirmed so far, including festival favorites and new additions. Chef Kevin Belton will emcee the newly named Mike’s Amazing Culinary Stage, presenting live cooking demos and stories about New Orleans’ cherished culinary traditions. The Mike’s Amazing team will be on-site to share recipes that deliver maximum flavor and offerings to pair with favorite festival dishes. New participants like Chubbie’s Fried Chicken join beloved longstanding vendors such as Vaucresson Sausage and Ms. Linda The Yakamein Lady, with other gems like Friends of Codey’s, Addis, and Smoke & Honey who return with culinary delights.

Abita Beer returns as the major French Quarter Festival 2025 sponsor, bringing a variety of beloved local flavors to this year’s celebration. Spirits and mixed cocktail options will be available at beverage booths across the festival grounds, featuring Jack Daniel’s, Fords Gin, Diplomático Rum, el Jimador Tequila, and Korbel California Champagne. Exciting new additions to the beverage menu include selections from Caymus Vineyards, Emmolo, Sea Sun Wines, and White Claw Vodka.

A full list of confirmed culinary vendors can be found here.

French Quarter Festivals, Inc. is committed to keeping the FQF free to the public. But “superfans” can purchase VIP packages to support the organization’s mission: click here for info.

FQF starts with the traditional Opening Day Parade on Thursday, April 10, at 10 a.m. Family-friendly activities include the all-star Chevron STEM Zone, off ering hands-on experiences for curious minds, and Ernie’s Schoolhouse Stage, which highlights young, aspiring musicians.

The full 2025 French Quarter Festival music lineup will be announced in March.

The post 2025 French Quarter Festival Music Lineup Announced appeared first on OffBeat Magazine.

But this year it may be a bit different.

Everyone knows about the devastating fires in the Los Angeles area. According to news reports, roughly 88,000 people remain under evacuation orders Wednesday with another 84,800 under evacuation warnings due to wildfires in Los Angeles County. Strong winds were expected (and low humidity) for large areas in Los Angeles and Ventura counties whihc coud exacerbate the spread. The fires have burned a combined 38,600 acres in Los Angeles County alone. Containment of those fires grew slightly Monday, as firefighters took advantage of lighter winds to clear wider containment lines. (for perspective, the greater New Orleans area in acreage is about 116,000).

There are thousands who are homeless, and many of them are musicians and artists, as well as music business professionals.

The GRAMMYs usually include not only the official ceremonies at the Staples Center to announce the winners, and the TV show, but many events and parties that are presented by industry businesses such as record labels, technology, creatives and much more. Many of those events have been cancelled in respnse to the fire’s current—and potentially future—devastation.

Reid Wick. Photo by Erika Goldring for the Recording Academy.

According to Reid Wick, who has served as the Associate Director for Membership and Industry Relations for the Recording Academy (producers of the GRAMMYs) at their Memphis Chapter for the last 20 years, the “entire telecast is having to be revamped to make it more of a fundraiser, with a ‘telethon’ kind of vibe.” (Wick has just recently been promoted to a similar job with the Recording Academy—but on a national level—where he will still do music advocacy and membership, but will be working more on a national level in fast-growing markets like Denver, Asheville, NC, and more). Revamping a show as complicated and with such high-end production as the GRAMMY Awards is truly an intimidating job for an internationally-broadcast event that’s only about two weeks away.

“There’s a real similarity to what happened to New Orleans during the Katrina but, of course, a lot of those people are wealthy people who lost their homes, and have the wherewithal to rebuild, or they have other homes; whereas in New Orleans, we don’t have that level of money, and the entire city and many more people were affected,” said Wick.

Wick said that he thinks the GRAMMY Awards are going to be changed to stress the importance of helping those affected by the fires financially, and the healing that music can provide to the many musicians and music industry professionals who have lost everything to the fires. “Music is a healing force,” he said.

So, the 2025 GRAMMYs are on, but apparently will be revamped and reoriented towards fundraising for the people who have lost their homes and jobs as a result of the fires. Let’s throw out some good vibes for Louisiana musicians who are nominated and deserve to win!

The post Will The 2025 GRAMMY Awards Go On? appeared first on OffBeat Magazine.

In case you haven’t noticed, most of the promotion you get these days from musicians, clubs and event promoters is…non-existent—except on their own social media channel. In the “olden” days (like before COVID), bands and clubs were much more aware of the need to do a wider promotional push. But COVID sort of ended that.

OffBeat Magazine has provided free “music listings” for almost 40 years: FREE, but clubs and promoters have to send them in. Alternatively, OffBeat’s listings system also allows you to upload your own information and it will be displayed in our calendar of events automatically—you can even promote shows within the calendar itself (no phone calls or emails needed). You can also promote shows via our website, Weekly Beat newsletter or our social media platforms.

Let me tell you why that’s a good idea.

Since I’ve been involved in music media for the better part of my life, I’ve noticed all the changes in the way information has been disseminated over the years. Obviously social media has taken over as the way to get the word out about who’s performing. IMO, there’s a growing problem with that.

Each musician, each club, each event that only uses its own social media, has set up its own social media silo of information that limits exposure to a much wider audience of potential music consumers. If you’re not following a particular band or club on social media, then you might miss out on knowing about some great new music…maybe some that’s fantastic but you’ll never know about because you only get your performance “news” through one or two sources.

I’ve heard a lot of venues complain about how bad business is. There seem to be fewer and fewer people going out to listen to live music, if they live in NOLA. Of course, one of the reasons for this is that there’s also been a big demographic change in audiences. Older audiences tend to go out more than younger ones. Why? It used to be the other way around.

Most venues and musicians today use their own social media channels to reach their audiences. Why? Because, while it works to a certain extent, there are still a lot of potential audience members who may not be on that particular social media platform. I fail to understand why folks don’t advantage of other communication channels to get the word out.

Staying in your silo of info doesn’t grow your audience. You are preaching to the choir.

It’s actually interesting to know that even while social media has ostensibly made communication so much easier, in reality its created silos of information where people don’t communicate with each other at all. So ironically, social media has decreased free communication amongst all of us.

This mentality also applies to sharing information so that all of us—especially in local music—can know about what’s going on in the community. New Orleans is a place where there are organizations (non-profit as well as for-profit) who will not share information that could be beneficial to everyone. For example, when the New Orleans Music Census was being designed, there were several partners who committed to use their contacts as a way to get the word out to encourage as much participation as possible (OffBeat being one of them). One partner dropped out relatively late in the game because they refused to share info about the census  with their contacts. Who lost out? We all did.

It’s not a good situation for us to be in. Looking beyond music and publicity, it’s also pretty clear that these silos have built almost impenetrable walls around sectors of the population’s mentality, creating a severe dearth of opinions, promotional information, common interests, and most obviously, political discourse.

I say “stop the silos” nonsense and open up communications and information to as many people as you can. Social media has its limitations, too—and it’s to their benefit to keep you in their silo. That doesn’t help you.

The post Silos Aren’t Just For Corn, Get Rid of Them appeared first on OffBeat Magazine.

In New Orleans, our infrastructure is in obvious horrible shape: roads have potholes that take almost three months to repair. Sidewalks are sinking and are being broken apart by the shifting swampland on which the city is built. The situation at the Sewerage & Water Board—that controls the pumps which divert water from flooding the under-sea level city—are inadequate, antiquated, or are easily damaged by something as trivial as a mylar balloon that broke the system (this just happened last week). Daily “boil water” warnings are commonplace all over the city, sometimes on a weekly basis. So many neighborhoods flood, causing auto and home damage on a regular basis (parking on neutral grounds being allowed is also commonplace in New Orleans in the event of a heavy rain…not a tropical storm or a hurricane: a heavy rain).

Yet, the residents of New Orleans love the city so much that they continue to tolerate all the different pain-in-the-ass situations. Not only do they tolerate it, but there’s such a combination of crumbling infrastructure and political corruption—coupled with citizen apathy to demand services be modernized and upgraded—that it’s causing many folks to question why they put up with living in a third-world environment. NOLA continues to lose population at a steady and rising pace. At some point when it continues to get worse, we’re also going to experience a drop in tourism and conventions in the future. But hey, that’s in the far-distant future…so who cares about fixing it now?

Yet, we get unfulfilled promises and plans that aren’t implemented by local government, and most citizens are just too dmaned apathetic to do anything but complain.

New Orleans has been described as the “City That Care Forgot,” presumably because it’s ruled by what’s been described as the “Mardi Gras mentality” that totally focuses on partying in the here and now, scooping up those important tourism dollars—rather than thinking long-term: making the city a superior place to live, to make a living, to have well-educated happy kids, to being safe for all: a place where we can live together and celebrate our community, culture, food, ambiance and music in an other than third-world milieu. Right now, New Orleans continues to be the “City That Doesn’t Care.”

I was born and raised in New Orleans and have lived the majority of my life here. However, I’ve also lived in several other cities and I have seen what can happen and how the quality of everyday life is far superior to the bullshit you have to endure when you live in NOLA. So don’t give me that “if you don’t like it leave” crap that people say when someone complains about the deterioration of New Orleans. If I didn’t care, there would be no OffBeat. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t voice my concerns about the future of New Orleans.

The ”Mardi Gras mentality”—live for today’s party and who cares about tomorrow—has got to be modified or tamped down or we are going to become even more decrepit, infrastructure-wise. People have to get more involved in change for the common good and plan for the future. Many people who live in New Orleans are addicts—they are addicted to the party ‘til you drop mindset. And you know, addicts are notoriously people who don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves. That’s a big problem.

I recently read a post on Reddit/NewOrleans from someone who was unfamiliar with a situation because they just “didn’t keep up with politics.” If you’re not involved with what’s going on in your community, then you’re jeopardizing your own future and that of your city. Throw away that go-cup and wake up to reality—or leave.

All of the last few paragraphs focus on a sorely-needed mentality change on the part of caring citizens and also should be mandated from business owners, festivals and corporate citizens.

Otherwise, this city will ultimately become even more crime-ridden, filthy and a more difficult place for average people to live.

The same mentality also persists in the music community. Very soon the city’s Office of Nighttime Economy (ONE) will release the results of the New Orleans Music Census that was recently commissioned to help determine what needs to be done to improve the city’s music scene.

One of the issues that raised its head is that many people refused to complete the survey because they’ve been asked for similar info before, but have never felt that the results led to anything different happening—like that fatalistic viewpoint ever helped improve anything! Musicians are being paid less than ever before. They are not respected in the community overall. They feel that are constantly taken advantage of. There were several entities who volunteered to help to get the word out about the importance of taking the survey (OffBeat being one of them). The only way anyone can get input from the group of people who will ultimately benefit from the results of such a survey—is to ask them to identify what the problems—thus pointing opportunities for solutions—to plan for improvements.

Typically for New Orleans, one entity refused to help get the word out because its leaders felt that since its organization was not in charge of developing the questions, it was not worth promoting to its community. How short-sighted and anti-productive is that, in light of the potential benefit to the music community? I can never understand this type of reasoning that seems very common in New Orleans and Louisiana; it smacks of power politics and turf protection, which is not what our music community needs to thrive and improve. Other entities dropped the ball, in my opinion, because they just didn’t care enough to contact their constituents. Same-old, same-old New Orleans-style: apathy and turf protection. Negativity! Luckily there were more than enough respondents to be statistically significant in determining an overall picture of what’s right, what’s wrong, and where the opportunities lie for improving our music scene for everyone in the music ecosystem.

The developer of the survey, Sound Music Cities, is gathering info from cities/cohorts of music scenes across the country. This is valuable in aggregate because it compares music scenes across the country to identify commonalities in the success of a music scene, as well as to identify opportunities that can potentially be addressed to make a music scene better, based on the opinions of the actual participants (musicians, bands, venues, festivals, educators, music businesses). In other words, what infrastructure changes and additions do we need to improve the situation for local music, its creators and the entities that nurture and promote it? The survey was vetted by many people to determine major issues relevant to New Orleans, and each survey was tailored to individual communities.

In a few words, we kind of know overall what needs to be changed and improved in the city’s physical infrastructure. All of us are affected by flooding, boil water advisories, terrible roads and potholes, and such things as inadequate policing. These are evident to any citizen that lives in NOLA. It’s past time for New Orleans to have better information as a guideline on what we need to do specifically to help our music scene. Hopefully the Sound Cities Music survey results will provide a starting point for improvements, based on what those members of the music scene identify.

The results of the Music Census New Orleans will be released next week, with a follow-up networking event to take place.

The post Infrastructure?</br>Who Actually Cares? appeared first on OffBeat Magazine.

Last August, I wrote a blog that demonstrated my concern about the state of live music in New Orleans. Summers are always bad in New Orleans because it’s just hot as hell (and getting worse) and we just don’t have the influx of visitors that we have during most of the rest of the year.

When OffBeat started, one of the things that we did immediately was to distribute the magazine in all the area hotels and motels, because tourists have always been told that NOLA has fantastic live music….and there was really no way to promote local music to visitors. That’s how OffBeat made its mark on the local music scene, thanks to front desk staff, bellmen, and concierges in the hundreds of lodging facilities in the city who welcomed OffBeat because it promoted local music and musicians, and it made their jobs easy.

Well, those are tourists. Any venue in the Quarter or on Frenchmen suffers when there a fewer visitors in the city. Some venues are actually closing down for at least part of the summer (e.g. The Maple Leaf Bar). Bands may not have gigs because venues can’t afford to pay them, and on places like Frenchmen Street, venue owners may not be able to pay a band; they may have to do with duos and trios.

The other problem is that there is very much a negative generational shift. Younger people don’t go out to listen to live music the way that they used to. It’s too easy to experience music on their phone or tablet without leaving their house. (This article is an interesting read for people who care about music).

Here’s another wrinkle I just became aware of: virtual reality content creators are producing fantastic musical content for products like the Meta headset. I spoke with my daughter (who has one), and she told me that with the purchase of a headset, she got some great content, one of which was a concert event that allowed her to sit in the front row with other audience “members” to enjoy a fantastic “live” concert. Obviously this stuff is going to be expensive as hell ($100 at least, which is surely cheaper than actually going to the real concert itself), but if you can shell out the money for a headset, you’d probably be able to download at least some of that content. And we all know that with time, it will get cheaper.

This adoption of VR equipment and content is not going to happen overnight, but it is going to happen, and sooner than we think.

So what can musicians and venues do to maintain and to keep their live gigs alive? This requires a more serious examination of technology’s impact on the survival of live music than simply watching content on phones or tablets.

I know for a fact that younger demographics do not go out to experience live music like boomers or Gen X. It’s just too easy to watch it without having to leave your house. Phones and computers are replacing the actual experience of live music.

So it’s not just the heat or lack of visitors to the city that’s affecting our live music scene. It’s a now quickly-growing technology and it’s being used by an audience that used to regularly go out to listen to live music, and its impact will really be seen with younger audiences.

This may not affect us so significantly in the short term, but I guarantee you it’s going to have a negative impact on live music presentation and attendance in the future, and it’s coming a lot faster than you think. How do we ensure that the excitement, audience involvement and the “connection” between bands and audiences at a live music show will exist in the future? Venues are already seeing serious changes in who goes out to see live entertainment. What can be done to entice audiences of the benefits of experiencing music live instead of using technology Would love to hear your thoughts and opinions—and ideas on how to strengthen the appeal of live music. Email me: janramsey@offbeat.com!

The post Is Live Music Going To Survive Technology? appeared first on OffBeat Magazine.