Like last year, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend two days of Jazz Fest this year: the first Saturday and the second Friday. Huge thanks to Kenny who agreed to deal with the boys while I was off festing!
I went with Dana, Dave, and their cousins Staci and Rickey the first weekend. Maroon 5 closed out the Acura Stage that day, so I got to the fairgrounds right when the gates opened to secure a spot for us. My timing was perfect: I found a great spot right behind a group with a flag boasting #BlessedattheFest and ended up scoring a koozie and a pin from them!
The rest of the group joined me about an hour and a half later and arrived with beer to thank me for getting out there early. I was so excited to show Dana my flamingo shirt, which I actually borrowed from Nopsi. It’s the perfect fest shirt! Dana and I also made sure to walk over to Congo Square to see if our friend Oscar was set up in one of the booths there. We decided we both needed new pins to add to our collections. We found him easily, and he just so happened to have two pink flamingo pins. Perfect!
We were at Acura all day long, and we saw some great acts: Travers Geoffray, Marc Broussard, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Jon Batiste and Stay Human, and Maroon 5. I had my favorite cochon de lait po-boy, Creole’s stuffed bread, and sweet potato chips. Throw in about half a dozen beers, a comfy tailgate chair, and overcast skies, and my day was made.
Aside from Maroon 5 ending their set 15 minutes early, it was a really great day!
I was back out at the fairgrounds the next Friday, this time with Jeff. I dropped the boys off at Nola and Nopsi’s after Field Day (thanks again for watching them!) and met Jeff at the City Park shuttle. We arrived at the gates almost two hours after they opened but managed to snag a small patch of grass at the Acura stage right in front of our Blessed at the Fest friends. It poured the day before, so parts of the grounds were fairly sloppy. I was really glad I had my rain boots on.
We made friends with everyone around us, including a local couple who let us use their ice chest, an older couple in town from New York for their first Jazz Fest, and a New York transplant who came here 12 years ago to work for the coroner’s office and never left. And we ran into our friend Lauren, who Jeff and I grew up with. It turned out that she is friends with Kim, the one behind the #BlessedattheFest movement. New Orleans is such a small world.
I also ended up seeing fellow Jazzercisers Elisa and Alex and Rory’s teacher Lisa.
The Jazz Fest skywriter was also out this day!
Again, we stayed at Acura all day and saw 4 great acts: Bonerama, Sonny Landreth, the Revivalists, and Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds. We both got cochon de lait po-boys, I introduced Jeff to the Creole’s meat pie, he had a duck po-boy and a crawfish beignet, and I had crawfish Monica. All so good.
One of the best parts of the evening was when Dave said he had a special guest that wanted to come out and do one song with him and Tim. Jeff had gotten word from a friend of his that this may happen, so we were anticipating it: Jimmy Buffet came out and the three of them performed “A Pirate Looks at 40.” SO awesome; I wanted more!
Dave and Tim gave a super chill, laidback performance that Jeff and I thoroughly enjoyed. We had a really great day together; thanks for the quality time, little bro!
Until next year!
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