Jazz Fest was supposed to start today. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, to use its proper name, or just the NOLA Jazz Fest.
We were going to be there. I had restarted a previous Glover Gardens series called New Orleans Jazz Fest Anticipation with the posts below.
We were going to revel in the food, the music and the local culture—like we always do.
We were going to go for both weekends this year, a first for us. There were just too many good acts to decide between the first and second weekends of the festival.
We were going to meet up with a couple of friends we met through the Glover Gardens blog, some really neat people.
But then, COVID-19 came, an unwelcome guest throughout the world that hit New Orleans especially and heartbreakingly hard.
Rather than being cancelled, NOLA’s Jazz Fest was at first just postponed to the fall.
I liked the moxie and optimism in that.
But a few days ago, it was cancelled outright.
That makes sense. We don’t have a clue when we’ll be “back to normal”. And that won’t be the old normal. It’ll be the new normal, or perhaps I should say the “new abnormal”.
There are still things to celebrate, though. Music, in general. Jazz Fest music, in particular. Good ol’ WWOZ of New Orleans is hosting “Festing in Place: An On-Air Festival.” Yay!
MusicFestNews.com had something to say about it:
“Jazz Fest fans the world over were heartbroken to learn earlier this month that, for the first time in its 50 year history, The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival would be canceled this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic. But now the city’s “Guardians of the Groove,” WWOZ FM 90.7, aim to soothe the hurt with eight days of the best of its broadcasts recording live from past Jazz Fests.”
From the article: New Orleans WWOZ’s “Jazz Festing in Place” is Just What Our Aching Souls Need Right Now
The music is some of the best from the festivals throughout the years, and will be presented during the regular Jazz Fest hours, 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 a.m. CDT. I have to work for most of that time on weekdays and usually have 6+ hours of meetings each day, but you can bet that when I’m just doing thinking-work or answering emails, I’ll have WWOZ on in the background. Heck, the foreground! NOLA Jazz Fest music sounds good loud.
How to listen? They’ll be live-streaming, from here: https://www.wwoz.org/listen/player/
I think I will wear my festive Jazz Fest shirt during work (from home) today. That’s the Grill-Meister and me, in our happy Jazz Fest shirts, at the Court of Two Sisters restaurant in NOLA last year during the festival. It had been a very good day of food, music and culture, can’t you tell?
NOLA, we love you, your music, your food, your people and your culture, and we’ll be back when you’re ready for visitors.
Until then, we’ll “fest in place” with you and celebrate your food and music from afar.
Stay home, stay safe, stay sane and stay in touch.
© 2020, Glover Gardens
Great tribute. I hope Jazz Fest returns next year.
Thank you, Ray. That means a lot to me, especially coming from you. I don’t know if you remember, but we met because of Jazz Fest – for my Jazz Fest Anticipation series in 2017, I was looking for a picture of the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen to support a post about their Jambalaya Pizza, and you had a great one on your Storyteller blog. Thank you for letting me use it! Here’s a link to that post: https://glovergardens.com/2017/01/08/new-orleans-jazz-fest-anticipation-jambalaya-pizza/ . Scroll to the bottom to see Ray’s gorgeous pic, my friends.