2016 Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival

2016 CRESCENT CITY BLUES & BBQ FESTIVAL The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation presents the 11th annual Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival, Oct. 14-16, in New Orleans’ Lafayette Square Park. Admission is free. "I've been to many blues festivals in the U.S. and Europe, and I can honestly say that the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival is a charming piece of musical heaven. If you are planning a trip to New Orleans and want to experience the city and its wonderful music without enormous crowds, put this October, free festival on your musical bucket list." - Art Tipaldi, Editor, Blues Revue Magazine All the details are below. But if you want to keep up with all the latest news - like tons of videos, audio, photos and other tidbits of info to give you the inside scoop on the festival and all of our performers - tune in to our Facebook page! 2016 Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival Schedule: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14 5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. The Suffers 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tab Benoit SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15 ST. CHARLES STAGE 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Colin Lake 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Nikki Hill 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Taj Mahal CAMP STREET STAGE 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Jimmy "Duck" Holmes 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Jontavious Willis 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Walter "Wolfman" Washington & The Roadmasters 5:45 p.m. to 7 p.m. Alvin Youngblood Hart & Muscle Theory SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16 ST. CHARLES STAGE 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Smoky Greenwell Band 2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Little Freddie King 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Tyree Neal 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. TUCKA CAMP STREET STAGE: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Lil Poochie & Hezekiah Early 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. Benny Turner 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Johnny Sansone 5:45 p.m. to 7 p.m. Cedric Burnside Project Arts Market As always, we will host a huge arts market, with 24 of our best local and regional makers of hand-crafted artworks and home furnishings. Applications for vending spots are due July 15. See here for the application https://jazzandheritagefoundation.wufoo.com/forms/2016-blues-bbq-fest-arts-market-application/ Food Vendors Once again, we've gone overboard with a huge spread of great barbecue, representing several regional styles - with a fresh emphasis on Louisiana, since New Orleans has seen a surge in barbecue restaurants (ahem) in the time since we started this festival! And yes, it's a barbecue festival - but we still have some options for vegetarians, vegans and those who eat gluten-free. Applications for vending spots are due July 15. See here for the application. https://jazzandheritagefoundation.wufoo.com/forms/2016-blues-bbq-food-vendor-application/ VIP Experience Passes https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-crescent-city-blues-bbq-festival-vip-experience-tickets-25910150959 To help recoup some of our costs, we put on sale a very limited number of special VIP Experience backstage passes. These provide access to special viewing and seating areas at both stages, a complimentary bar and a deluxe indoor hospitality suite with a balcony view of Lafayette Square, air conditioning, catering and real bathrooms. The VIP Experience passes cost $250 each (plus a service charge of $13.49), and are good for the entire weekend. We do not sell single-day passes. The passes are not transferrable (from one person to another) and all sales are final (no refunds). To order, click https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-crescent-city-blues-bbq-festival-vip-experience-tickets-25910150959 Note: VIP passes are non-transferrable and non-refundable. Host Hotel Looking for a place to stay? Choose the Blake Hotel New Orleans and receive a 15 percent discount from the standard rate. Use this link https://www.choicehotels.com/louisiana/new-orleans/ascend-hotels/la281/rates?ratePlanCode=LCCBF, and select the special rate LCCBF. Note: Booking a room at the Blake Hotel does not provide access to the hotel’s balcony or other Blues & BBQ Fest VIP Experience areas at the Blake. No Oral History Stage This Year Due to construction in Gallier Hall, we no longer have access to the NORD Theater on the ground floor of that building across St. Charles Avenue from Lafayette Square. Accordingly, we won’t have an oral history interview stage this year. Here’s to hoping that we’ll be able to bring it back next year. Official Poster Artist John Bukaty Studio / Gallery is painting our third annual official poster, which is going to be amazing! The poster will be on sale in two versions: signed by both Bukaty and the poster subject, numbered and embossed, for $125; and numbered and signed by Bukaty for $50. We'll soon have them available online. Meanwhile, you can order the 2015 poster, featuring Walter “Wolfman” Washington, and the 2014 poster, Little Freddie King, online here. CDs, T-Shirts and Autographs As in the past, the Louisiana Music Factory will host our merchandise operation. Most of our performers will visit the tent to sign autographs immediately after their performances. We’ll have an official Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival t-shirt available for sale as well. Keep The Festival Safe and Free: -->No Outside Food, Beverages or Pets <-- Like all of our events, the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival is completely free and open to the public - part of the community investment made by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation. PLEASE: Except for those with small children or dietary restrictions, please do not bring outside food or beverages to the event - no coolers are permitted. We realize that Lafayette Square is usually open to pets. But for the safety and comfort of our large audience, we ask that you respect your neighbors and leave your companion animals at home (except for service animals, of course). Thank you. Please note that we will post donation boxes at all of the entrances to the park - your donations are most welcome and help us to offset our (very significant) costs in producing this event. If you would like to support the Foundation and help keep this event free, please make the tax-deductible contribution of your choice here. No Smoking The City of New Orleans has a new prohibition on smoking - which doesn't cover outdoor spaces in most of the city, but it does cover Lafayette Square. So, please, no smoking of cigarettes, cigars or pipes, and no vaping. Thank you. Public Transit Lafayette Square is conveniently located along the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line and the Magazine Street bus route. Free Bicycle Parking In collaboration with our friends at Bike Easy, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting bicycle ridership, we’re offering free valet bicycle parking. Please ride your bike to the event, knowing that it’ll be safe and secure – and you won’t have to hassle with locking it to a telephone pole or worrying about somebody stealing your tires or seat. Parking Easy parking is available at several surface and indoor parking lots within a few blocks of the festival. The Poydras Center (650 Poydras Street) will offer all-day parking on Saturday and Sunday for a flat fee of $10 per day -- enter the parking garage from Camp Street. On the Radio Community radio station WWOZ 90.7 FM New Orleans will broadcast most of the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival live from Lafayette Square – over the air and in streaming audio at www.wwoz.org. No-Chairs Perimeter Due to the heavy use of camp chairs by many fans in close proximity to our stages, we are forced to institute a "no chairs" perimeter of 75 feet from both stages. We appreciate that many of you like to bring chairs to the festival and set up camp in front of the stages. But this prevents many of our other guests from having the opportunity to get a closer look at the onstage action. We thank you in advance for your understanding. ADA Access We provide reserved areas at both stages for our guests who use wheelchairs. We also provide ADA compliant toilets in all three of our locations for Port-O-Lets (at the corners of Camp and North Maestri streets, Camp Street and South Maestri streets, and St. Charles at South Maestri). The ADA toilets are kept locked for cleanliness; to access them, please visit our Foundation Information booth and we'll provide you with the key or combination. No Recording Please, no audio or video recording of any performances at the festival. The Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival is a presentation of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, the nonprofit organization that owns the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell. The Foundation uses the proceeds from Jazz Fest, and other funds, for year-round programs in the areas of education, economic development and cultural events. For more about the Foundation and what we do, visit us online at www.jazzandheritage.org.