Jazz Fest Weekend in New Orleans

Bourbon Street, of course. Tons of people of all ages come in town for Jazz Fest. The streets are packed, the hotels are booked, people are everywhere, which lends to a great Bourbon Street attitude (beads included).

Quick Tips:

Try to get your hotel room well in advance. We got ours in January (for May), and still ended up staying 10 or 15 blocks from Bourbon. If you want to be "in the middle of it all", you want to stay as close to Bourbon as possible.

Jazz Fest itself was an experience, but not a great one. I'll go into details in my journal.

Don't eat (or necessarily drink) ON Bourbon Street. Go a couple blocks off where the food and drinks are cheaper. It was nice to be with a large group of people who all had been to lots of different restaurants and knew their way around. This allowed me to try some restaurants I never would have found on my own!

Best Way To Get Around:

If you are driving to New Orleans (or renting a car), you will be parking at your hotel. All three hotels I've stayed in charge -20 per night to keep your car there. Keep that in mind. It's an added (but necessary) expense.

Depending on how many people you have, cabs can be expensive. The cab drivers would try and charge us /person for a short drive. We would try to talk them into using the meter instead, which was sometimes cheaper, depending on traffic.

The lobby was nice enough with marble floors and countertops, a ticket/tour desk (for JazzFest, tours, etc.), and plenty of sitting areas. However, I was overcome with the feeling that I was in a youth hostel. There were young people camped out with backpacks and sleeping bags, lounging on the couches, sitting on the floor, and standing in line. It was a madhouse. I waited in a long line to get the key to our room. My friend and I were sharing a room with 4 other people who had all gotten there the day before and left a key for us.

We valeted the car at $15(+tax) a night, and lugged all of our stuff through the lobby (one of the main doors was broken, leaving everyone to go through one door) and to the elevators (one of the three were broken). We got up to our room, and the key card didn''t work. Well, in talking to my friend the day before, I thought that she said room "473", but when we had arrived at the hotel, the front desk told us room "453." Since the card did not work on "453," I thought it may have been a mistake, and tried the key on "473."

The key worked! We walked in and noticed was there was only 1 bed. We were sure there were supposed to be 2 and we didn''t recognize any of the luggage. I called my friend and asked "How many beds are in the room?" "Two," she replied. We were in the wrong room! I went to the lobby, had the key card re-programmed, which we later discovered re-programmed the other two keys to our room as well!

The room was rather large, with dark maroon carpet, coordinating beds, cable TV, particleboard furniture, a "welcome package" with some food and beads, a small bathroom. According to their website, the hotel (built in 1955) had been re-done in 1995. I think they forgot the bathrooms.

At night, we were disturbed by the loud noise from I-10 (the freeway was directly outside our window), the sirens and other city noise, and we could hear people in other rooms and in the hall.

Other things: The "24-hour" front desk NEVER answered the phone, my friend''s pillowcase got stolen, the "free breakfast" from 7-10 was donuts and coffee, the maid service would take all our towels and not leave us any (and we had to call FOUR times to get more towels, or corner a maid in the hall), and it took 30 minutes (and some arguing) to get our car from Valet parking the morning we left.

It was a room, it was clean, they didn’t seem to care that we had 6 people in a 4-person room, and it was about 10 blocks (we walked a few times) to Bourbon Street, but there are MUCH better hotels for the same price. I don''t think I''ll be staying there again.

Someone I was with knew about this little restaurant on the corner of St. Louis & Chartres a couple blocks off Bourbon. We walked in to the dark little restaurant about 8 PM on a Saturday night. Even with our party of 14, we were promptly seated in one of the back rooms. The room was dimly lit, with Napolean garb everywhere: Oil paintings of the famed French general, lamp bases of his bust, statues, and pictures of other historical French landmarks.

It was an intriguing place. Supposedly, the house was built by French loyalists in the hopes that it would be used by Napoleon himself after he was rescued from exile on the isle of Elba! However, some people like to point out that the building was not built until a couple of years after Napoleon's death. It had a definite "house" quality to it with all the different little rooms, vaulted ceilings, and windows and doors that opened onto the bustling street.

It also reminded my Europe traveling buddy and I of a French restaurant... including the semi-rude waiter! The menu consisted of typical New Orleans fare: Po' Boys, Muffalattas, gumbo, and some other types of food that looked very good as well (Greek salads, salmon, eggplant sandwich, Spinach-Artichoke dip etc). I had a hard time deciding what I wanted, and eventually decided on the muffalatta. They seemed to have an extensive wine collection also. Some of the people at my table had ordered appetizers and salads, so I got to try the very cheesy Spinach-Artichoke dip (which didn't come with enough dipping bread), which was good, and I also tried the greek salad, which was also very good.

When our food arrived, it was almost an hour after we had ordered. We cut them some slack, since we were such a large party. They said every dish is individually prepared, we weren't in a big hurry, and we were enjoying the ambiance. However, when the waiter didn't come refill any of our drinks for the rest of the meal, we weren't very happy. My muffalatta (a whole one is $10, and I split it) was warm and on wonderfully thick foccocia bread (I think), and had the typical muffalotta meats, cheese, and olive spread. It was delicious and filling!

Overall, the service wasn't that great, but the food and atmosphere were excellent and the prices were really affordable. Also, on a side note: with the classical music, darkness, and quietness, it would definitely be a good place for an affordable and romantic date.

Having never been to Jazz Fest, I thought it would be a nice, relaxing spring day (JF is held in late April/early May) at the New Orleans Fairgrounds sitting on a blanket, listening to some good music (Dave Matthews, Mystikal, Cowboy Mouth, etc.) and hanging out with my friends. I thought that getting there around 2:30 was plenty of time to look around and still make it to see Cowboy Mouth at 4. My friends that were with me, most of whom had been to Jazz Fest, thought this was a good idea also.

Instead, we encountered a record-setting crowd of 160,000 people (previous record of 98,000), we couldn't even get near any stage, people were pushy and rude. Almost immediately, we started over to the (main) Acura stage, and before we could even hear the band on the stage (much less see the stage), we ran into a wall of people and people camped out EVERYWHERE. Blankets, chairs, beer, and half-naked, sunburned people covered the ground. We were stuck, we could do nothing but be pushed along by the crowds, hoping not to lose each other.

Eventually, we had shuffled far enough were we could actually see the stage, and by then we realized that there was NO WAY we were going to be able to sit down. So, the only way out was to start climbing over people and their blankets. People were not happy about this, but there wasn't much they could do about it. An hour later, we were back where we started, but at least we were out of the crowd.

From there, we decided we could still go catch Mystikal on the Congo Stage. So, we made it over there, found a spot very far away from the stage (the closest we could get), and sat down. As the time for him to start approached, more and more people crowded in the stage area, but not near as bad as over at the Acura stage. We waited over an hour for Mystikal to come onstage. No announcements, apologies, NOTHING. He was supposed to play for only an hour - what could be taking so long!? Eventually, we decided we were fed up with this mess, we'd been there for almost 3 hours, hadn't seen one band, it was way too crowded, so we left.

Hopefully, based on this year's crowds, maybe they'll change their ticket-selling policies. They just sold WAY too many tickets. If there had been an emergency, or a riot, I don't know what they would have done. It was insane. Tickets were $18 via ticketmater (inc service charge), but we also paid $12 for a RT bus ticket to/from the fairgrounds from our hotel (the Crescent on Canal).

The good parts of Jazz Fest were the weather (it was gorgeous), the mango freezes (yum!), the interesting booths of artwork and displays, and the people-watching (Jazz Fest attracts all types).

Well, after a few drinks, you can almost always count on me wanting to dance and act crazy… Razzoo’s is an excellent place to do both. There’s usually a short line, but with all the people on Bourbon, you have plenty to watch and keep you entertained as you wait. Also, you should have your drink from the last bar you were at (or buy one at the beer stand across the street).

Once you get in, you will go up a couple stairs and fight your way through the crowd (it’s always packed on weekends). There’s a bar on your right, but keep walking. To the left is the dance floor, and to the left of that, another bar, but you have to go to the back of the club to get to them. At the back, you have the option of going outside to the patio or getting on/near the dance floor.

The patio is really cool. There is a bar on the far end that is usually not too crowded, beer tubs on the left wall, and a men’s strip club(!) entrance. There’s also a fountain with a fire in the center (similar to the one at Pat O’s), a few tables, and the bathrooms are out here. There are two large doors that lead you from the patio into the club, so you can still hear the music and dance if you want.

Inside, there is a big stage at the front of the dance floor where there are always people who work there on it. They are either lip-syncing to the song and "performing," trying to get the crowd even more riled-up than they are, announcing drink specials, having a dancing contest, or leading the crowd in a dirty version of the chicken dance. The somewhat small, always-packed dance floor is directly in front of the stage in kind of a "pit" compared to the rest of the club.

The music is a wide variety of rap, pop, old school 80s, hard rock, techno, alternative, and kids music. Rarely will they stick with one type of music for more than 2 or 3 songs. Did you ever expect to be dancing to the theme from "Sesame Street"? Well, at Razzoo’s, you will.

The people at Razzoo’s are awesome. Like the rest of Bourbon, everyone is just looking to have a good time. It’s a fun place to dance and have a good time. I love it there!

Before this trip to New Orleans, I was under the (very wrong) impression that Cat's Meow was a strip club! I have no idea why, since I had never been there. This time around, some friends steered me in the right direction. It turned out to be a really fun karaoke club.

We began the night there at about 10 PM. It was already packed and the karaoke was going. Cat's Meow consists of one large room with the stage in the corner (where the karaoke happens), a small dance floor, lots of tables, and a bar up on a platform in the back. There's a couple smaller rooms off to the sides, including a tiny patio that only serves daiquiris (machine made) and hurricanes.

I had heard that their hurricanes were "better than Pat O's," so I definitely had to try one. At $7.25 a pop, they better be good! The light pink concoction (I thought hurricanes were red?!) comes in a large plastic cup with lots of ice. It was ok, but I couldn't taste any alcohol, and it didn't affect me at all. After that, I switched to Crown&Cokes. They were good, but pricey @ $5.75!

The karaoke is lead by an emcee who interrupts every few karaoke songs with his own karaoke to get the crowd up and running. He also sometimes sings along/makes up new words with the people who are up there performing their own karaoke. The songs ran from anything and everything, based on what songs the karaoke singer chooses.

The crowd is good and friendly. There are a lot of bachelorette parties and older couples here, but there's still the young party crowd too. It's definitely crowded, and you can dance almost anywhere in the place. It's a fun place to start the night and get going, although maybe you shouldn't buy too many drinks while you're there!

For more info, visit their website at: http://www.catsmeow-neworleans.com/