The New Orleans Jazz Fest finally revealed its official line-up! On Friday the festival revealed the 500 names that will perform in the legendary cultural celebration. And guess who is back? Stevie Wonder as a major headliner!
Last year’s edition was full of Prince tributes since the “Purple Rain” icon passed away a few days before the festival. This year also marks the return of Lorde to the stage and brings a special set dedicated to Cuban music. Are you ready to celebrate music and heritage?
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell.
Music has a big annual celebration in New Orleans. The New Orleans Jazz Fest started in 1970 and it continues to gather some of the most important names in music locally and nationally. The Festival celebrates musical, cultural memories and heritage. According to its web page, the fest gathers every music style associated with the city and the state, including gospel, blues, traditional and contemporary jazz, rock, R&B, Cajun, country, rap, R&B, latin, jazz, zydeco and much more. What an eclectic mix!
The event brings to the city over $300 million annually, being rivaled only by the Mardi Gras. The Jazz & Heritage Festival is owned by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation. The foundation uses the proceed for development programs in areas such as education, economy, and culture. Since 2006 the main sponsor is the oil company Royal Dutch Shell
2017 edition coming up.
The huge music celebration will be held from April 28 to April 30, and from May 4 to May 7th, at the New Orleans Fair Grounds. Headliners include Stevie Wonder, Tome Petty and the Heartbreakers, Kings of Leon, Lorde, Maroon 5 and Usher with the Roots. Other big names in the Jazz Festival line-up include Dave Matthews, Wilco, Alabama Shakes, Snoop Dogg, Pitbull and Tim Reynolds. As well as over 500 artists performing in the course of two weekends.
The official line-up is here!
This year the festival brings a special program dedicated to Cuban music, displaying over twelve Cuban artists at the festival. Artists such as the Meters, Irma Thomas, Stay Human, Jon Batiste, Big Freedia and Aaron Neville represent New Orleans best staples.
On Friday, the Festival announced the line-up via YouTube with a cool video showing some of the 500 names. Tickets are already available on the Festival’s website, go get your early tickets! And chek the video!
Here’s the complete line-up.