The 2021 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival will be postponed to October because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a source with direct knowledge of the plan.
The Jazz Fest will be held at Fair Grounds on the weekends of October 8 and 15, the source said.
Other new media, including WWL television and OffBeat magazine, also confirmed the postponement through their own sources.
Since its creation in 1970, Jazz Fest has remained in the period of late April / early May. In recent years, the festival has spanned two four-day weekends.
In addition to the time of year, other changes could happen in 2021. The first weekend of Jazz Fest is supposed to be a three-day weekend, from Friday to Sunday. The second weekend may or may not include Thursday, October 14th.
An official announcement about the festival’s plans may come next week.
Board members of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the nonprofit organization that owns the festival, met almost Thursday evening to discuss the planned move and other items.
For more than 50 years as a New Orleans-based concert promoter, Don Fox of Beaver Productions canceled shows for all types of disasters.
Jazz Fest celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019. Attendance over the eight days at Fair Grounds exceeded 475,000, organizers said, the festival’s largest total audience since Hurricane Katrina.
In 2020, both Jazz Fest and French Quarter Fest were initially postponed and then canceled altogether as the pandemic persisted.
On Thursday, French Quarter Festival producers formally announced the postponement of their own festival from April to autumn. The 2021 French Quarter Festival is scheduled for September 30 to October. 3 –
With the advent of the COVID-19 vaccine, festival producers are hopeful that this fall’s replacement festival season – which takes place within the hurricane season – will happen.
Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue with Nevilles perform on the Acura Stage during the 50th Annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans on Sunday, May 5, 2019.
If so, it will be a dense month of music in New Orleans, with festivals spanning five consecutive weekends.
The French Quarter Fest is September 30 through October. 3 –
Jazz Fest will fill the next two weekends.
A reduced version of the Buku Music + Arts Project at Mardi Gras World is scheduled for October 22-23.
Concluding the music marathon, the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience will occupy its traditional Halloween weekend slot from October 29th to 31st.
The layout will be changed to some degree.
This is a developing story.