New Orleans Music and All the Rest

Did you attend French Quarter Festival this year? Have you previously? It’s billed as the largest free music festival in the U.S. south, because there are outdoor stages set up throughout the Quarter, where bands take turns performing a wide variety of music free to the public from 11:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. for three days in a row.

It was my good fortune to work all three days right across the street from the Old U.S. Mint where there happened to be a stage for Cajun music. While I remained near my table most of the time, my husband, Bob, meandered throughout the Quarter to sample the entire fare.  When I asked him what impressed him about the festival he replied,

“The uniform quality of performers – excellent music, the tremendous enthusiasm and participation of the people who came to be with them, and the reciprocal relationship between the performers and the people.”

I couldn’t agree more. Over the three days I heard fifteen different bands who performend on this stage alone.  While I preferred some bands’ styles over others, they were consistently good.  Somehow “the people who came to be with them” is so much more fitting than the word “audience,” given the vitality that performers and their fans exchanged and generated together.  Add to these the community ambiance New Orleans creates in each of its festivals, where visitors and locals unite in the zest of the celebration.  This exuberant community, in this case, is both a cause and result of the deep experience of the music and the pure fun of the festival.

Likera Lee and family stop for a meal at Louisiana Pizza Kitchen, the generous hosts of my book signing. (Don't be fooled by the restaurant's name; they also have an excellent crawfish etoufee' and more!)

The sign to the left of the table was the subject of many photographs and spontaneous answers.

Throughout the day as people read the top question on my sign — “Why do people live in New Orleans?” – some people, with a large grin on their faces, responded with a sweep of their hands and a nod to the fun, ”Because of this and all the rest we enjoy!” 

Others contentedly said, “Because we can.”  In Why People Live in New Orleans, I address environmental concerns that threaten to cut short our ability to say that.  On this website I invite you to add comments to my posts in the “Environmental Concerns” theme.  I hope you will join me in supporting a solution to these concerns, so that people can continue to say “Because we can” for a very long time.