Enjoy the lovely New Orleans springtime weather with endless fun and festivals.
The most well-known and anticipated one is the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, or as locals call it, Jazz Fest. Visitors from all over join locals in celebrating the unique culture of New Orleans while enjoying musical artists on several stages, endless amounts of food, handmade arts and crafts, and so much more!
In addition to its infamous Jazz Fest, New Orleans also puts on its very own French Quarter Festival. Every year, the city turns the French Quarter neighborhood into a festival ground with multiple stages for local artists to perform, countless local cuisine vendors, and other special events and activities. Festival goers can also stop by NOLA Zydeco Fest to listen and dance to live music, take a dance lesson, and enjoy New Orleans food.
Experience spring like a local with several neighborhood festivals throughout the season. Stop by the Freret Street Festival, a one-day block party, and support the businesses on Freret Street as well as local artists and chefs. Celebrating the long heritage of the oldest neighborhood of free African Americans, the Congo Square Rhythms Festival and the Tremé Creole Gumbo Festival join forces to make this a one-of-a-kind event.
Honor New Orleans traditions with the help of Tremé performers and authentic, delicious gumbo. Lastly, if visitors find themselves in New Orleans during the “daze between” the two separate weekends of Jazz Fest, they are more than welcome to join locals as they celebrate this time with the festival, Daze Between New Orleans. Here, guests can see a wide-ranging lineup of eclectic local artists spanning all music genres. It’s as if you are at a smaller, more local version of Jazz Fest!
In addition to the typical music, food, and historic festivals, New Orleans is also home to several educational festivals during the springtime. The city hosts a New Orleans Entrepreneur Week Festival that is designed to connect, educate, and inspire entrepreneurial ecosystems across the South. There is also the annual Tennessee Williams Literary Festival that hosts playwrights, authors, actors, and speakers for panels as well as theatrical performances throughout the four-day event for anyone to attend. New Orleans additionally holds one of the longest-running foreign language festivals in the country where modern and classic French films are screened, called the New Orleans French Film Festival.