There is only one festival in America where people make an annual pilgrimage to eat deep-fried pig fat and hear music playing from a dozen stages all day long.
Jazz Fest — a massive outdoor celebration of music and food held 10 minutes outside the French Quarter of New Orleans — is an event unlike any other, drawing headliners ranging from B.B. King to Dave Matthews to the Neville Brothers, along with thousands of fans.
“I like to think of it as sort of the American musical Olympics,” said festival director Quint Davis.
When the festival, known formally as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, kicks off Friday, many New Yorkers will be there. In the last 15 years, more and more fans from the Big Apple have been flocking to the event — helping boost attendance from 250,000 in 1985 to 415,000 last year.
One reason for the growing appeal: Jazz Fest is by no means only a jazz festival. The event is seven days in all, held at the Fair Grounds Race Course on two consecutive weekends, and also features rock, gospel, soul, Cajun, zydeco and other kinds of music. In addition to Matthews, King and the Nevilles, this year’s big acts include Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Fats Domino, Wilson Pickett, Max Roach, Dr. John and Lucinda Williams.
Still, any Jazz Fest veteran would urge you not to miss some of the smaller stages, where lesser-known artists strut their stuff.
“Your eight-hour schedule has to be flexible, because the best person you’re going to hear is often someone you’ve never heard of before,” Davis said.
Then there are the mountains of food. Some of the best caterers and chefs in Louisiana peddle their wares at the festival, giving the audience plenty of delicious victuals to choose from — boiled crawfish, gumbo, cracklin’, po’ boys and raw oysters, to name a few.
There are also arts-and-crafts booths showing the work of local artisans and an entire stage devoted to chefs who show you how to re-create their recipes at home.
It’s the kind of festival that actors and musicians like to attend, even when they’re not involved.
British folk-rocker Richard Thompson — who is performing this year — likes to go even when he’s not playing, and actor John Goodman has been sighted wandering the grounds with a beer in his big hand.
Part of the festival’s appeal is the city itself. When the fairgrounds close at 7 p.m., all of New Orleans awaits the madding crowd.
“Jazz Fest is now second only to Mardi Gras in terms of drawing people to New Orleans,” said Phillip Jones, the secretary of Louisiana’s department of tourism.
Another draw is the festival’s ticket price — $15 a day in advance or $20 at the gates.
There are also 11 more expensive, separate nighttime concerts sponsored by the organizers that allow fans to get more time with some of their favorite performers.
Locals say they’re happy that Jazz Fest has become a kind of Mardi Gras for adults.
“Mardi Gras is a festival of destruction, while Jazz Fest is really a festival of appreciation,” said David Kunian, a local disc jockey and music documentarian.
“The things that New Orleans does best are music and food — and you get them in spades.”
Jazz Fest takes place April 27-29 and May 3-6. Live broadcasts from the festival can be heard on the Internet at http://www.wwoz.org. For more information, visit the festival’s Web site, http://www.insideneworleans.com/partners/nojazzfest/