No burgers but plenty of crawfish at this iconic New Orleans music
festival
[April 24, 2025]
By JACK BROOK
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival kicks off
on Thursday, bringing together a smorgasbord of the city's most iconic
homegrown artists for the next two weeks.
The festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of attendees, began in
1970 as a homage to the sounds of the birthplace of jazz and other
genres with deep regional roots: blues, gospel, folk, Cajun zydeco and
more. It now covers a wide range of music — headliners include Pearl Jam
and Lenny Kravitz alongside hometown favorites like Lil Wayne — but
remains focused on celebrating local artists and culture.
“We started out to reflect New Orleans to the world but now it's just as
much a part of New Orleans as Mardi Gras,” said Quint Davis, the
festival's longtime producer.
Davis also urges attendees to come hungry — the local flavors served up
by festival celebrate the city's renowned cuisine just as much as its
music.
What's the big deal about the food?
For some attendees, Davis says, the festival's world-class musicians
provide a soundtrack for their first priority: getting their hands on
the delicious Cajun and Creole meals — from pheasant, quail and
andouille gumbo to pecan catfish meunière and alligator sausage — served
by local vendors.
Most of the nearly 70 different vendors have been part of the festival
for several decades and “perfected their craft," said Michelle Nugent,
the festival's food director.
“The menu we feature you can't find anywhere else,” Nugent said.
“Everything is handmade and home-cooked.”
Robert Harrison III carries on the legacy of his late mother's bakery,
Loretta's Pralines, which sells chocolate, rum and coconut pralines,
along with a fan favorite that mixes pralines with a deep-fried dough
pastry known as a beignet.
“The praline beignet — my mom was a genius for this: she took two New
Orleans products that were just so French and she mashed them together,”
Harrison III said. He and his staff have spent weeks preparing thousands
of pralines for the festival: “It's something that you have to love to
do — my Mom loved to do it and we do too.”
Another Jazz Fest offering to drool for is the Cochon de Lait Po Boy —
suckling pig slow roasted on French bread — prepared by Walker's
Southern Style BBQ.
“We dry rub all those pork butts every night and they smoke all night
long,” said Shayne Brunet, whose family has operated a stall at the
festival for more than two decades. They add fresh coleslaw for crunch
and the family's secret “wertie” sauce — what Brunet describes as
“Creole creamy” — for a sweet kick.
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Bonerama performs at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in New
Orleans, Friday, May 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
 “One thing you won't find there is
burgers, hot dogs, pizza, French fries, any of the normal food that
you can get any other festival type of place," said John Caluda, who
runs a baking shop and pioneered the crawfish strudel, a festival
mainstay that wins over skeptics with its contrasting, flavorful
textures.
The strudel joins the pantheon of festival originals beside local
chef Pierre Hilzim's "Crawfish Monica" a creamy pasta dish featuring
crawfish tail meat and named after his wife. It's become one of the
festival's most popular dishes and Hilzim says he requires nearly
two million crawfish to satiate the appetites of festival customers.
“To be able to put a dish in the lexicon of food in this city — I’m
very humbled by that,” Hilzim said. As for attendees of the
festival: “I don’t think anywhere in the world is eating better
food.”
Who is playing at Jazz Fest this year?
Headliners at the festival include Pearl Jam, Lenny Kravitz, Dave
Matthews Band, Luke Combs, Kacey Musgraves, Santana, Burna Boy and
Lil Wayne and The Roots.
The majority of the dozens of artists playing over the course of
eight days across 14 stages are native New Orleanians — Lil Wayne
among them — such as Trombone Shorty, Big Freedia, Irma Thomas,
Harry Connick, Jr. and Mardi Gras Indian leader Big Chief Monk
Boudreaux.
This year's festival poster features local band Tank and the Bangas,
whose album “The Heart, the Mind, the Soul” won a Grammy earlier
this year for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album.
Lead singer Tarriona “Tank” Ball, who grew up on a street called
Music, first performed at the festival as a member of her high
school choir. Even after touring around the world, she says there's
nothing like performing for her city.
“When it comes time to be at home for Jazz Fest, everybody just
wants to give a little extra magic to the show,” Ball said. “You
want to make it extra special because your auntie is out in the
crowd, your little cousins — cause it's home.”
She's also looking forward to the festival food — her family runs a
fried chicken and jambalaya stand, and Ball says they'll have a
plate saved for after her show.
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