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Event Information:
New
Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival,
often known as Jazz Fest, is an
annual celebration of the music and
culture of New Orleans and
Louisiana. Use of the term "Jazz
Fest" can also include the days
surrounding the Festival and the
many shows at unaffiliated New
Orleans nightclubs scheduled during
the Festival event weekends.
Jazz fest live stream online
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The Festival has been held yearly
since 1970, when it was founded by
the New Orleans Hotel Motel
Association, to form "the New
Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation"
that owns the Festival, and George
Wein's "Festival Productions, Inc"
was contracted to produce the
Festival. To produce the Festival in
New Orleans, George Wein put
together a key group of artistic
advisers, among them Ellis Marsalis,
Richard B. "Dick" Allen and Harry
Souchon. Dick Allen, the curator of
Tulane University's Hogan Jazz
Archives, recommended Archive
employee Allison Miner and intern
Quint Davis to Wein to help produce
the first festival. After Wein
established the Festival, Miner and
Davis ran the day-to-day operation
of Festival Productions Inc.-New
Orleans under George Wein's and the
Foundation Board supervision for
many years. Quint Davis currently
holds the position of CEO of
Festival Productions, Inc.- New
Orleans. Miner is largely credited
with the founding the New Orleans
Jazz & Heritage Foundation Archive,
which contains recordings from
musicians interviewed at the
festival as well as other documents,
photographs and ephemera related to
the Festival and the Foundation's
holdings including early WWOZ
90.7-FM recordings. When Miner died
on December 23, 1995, the
interviewing stage was renamed in
her memory, the Allison Miner Music
Heritage Stage. After Hurricane
Katrina, the stage was temporarily
merged with the Lagniappe Stage
which is housed in the Grandstand,
and in 2009 it was reinstated as a
full stage.
Prior to the New Orleans Jazz &
Heritage Festival, similar "New
Orleans Jazz Festivals" were held by
different organizers in the 1960s.
The first two New Orleans Jazz &
Heritage Festivals in 1970 & 1971
were held in Louis Armstrong Park,
then known as Beauregard Square, in
the area of the park known to be the
historic Congo Square and the
adjoining New Orleans Municipal
Auditorium. Starting in 1972 Jazz
Fest has been held at the New
Orleans Fair Grounds and Racetrack.
The love of Jazz Fest has cemented
thousands of friendships over the
years. Fessheads, Pet de Kat Krewe,
Threadheads and other sub-groups
reunite annually at the Fair Grounds
Race Course where their ritual
includes flags and spirit poles
easily spotted among the thousands
of festival attendees. Sub-groups
throw annual parties with top
musical talent and invites are via
word-of-mouth.
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