New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Jazz Fest fills the infield of the Fair Grounds Race Course with more than a dozen stages and tents every spring. It is the largest music event in Louisiana and the anchor of the American jazz festival calendar.
- City
- New Orleans
- Where
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- When
- Late April into early May
- Since
- 1970
The festival was founded in 1970 by promoter George Wein with producer Quint Davis and archivist Allison Miner, and it is owned by the nonprofit New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation. Proceeds from the eight-day event pay for the Foundation's year-round work: the Heritage School of Music, the Tom Dent Congo Square Lecture Series, artist grants, the Jazz & Heritage Archive, and the community radio station WWOZ 90.7 FM. The 2026 edition runs April 23 to May 3 and is presented by Shell.
Programming is spread across roughly fourteen stages and tents at the Fair Grounds, including a dedicated Jazz Tent, the Blues Tent, the Gospel Tent and the Congo Square Stage, so straight-ahead jazz, brass bands, gospel, zydeco and blues run in parallel with the arena-scale headliners on the Festival and Gentilly stages. The majority of the several hundred acts booked each year are from Louisiana. Attendance approached half a million before 2020; the 2017 edition drew about 425,000 over seven days.
No shows in our listings yet
We don't have any Jazz Fest shows in our listings yet (its program is usually announced shortly before each edition). In the meantime, explore all our live jazz shows.
Where to stay for Jazz Fest
Hotels and apartments around New Orleans. Prices shown are for one night; you can widen the dates on the map.
Frequently asked questions
- When does Jazz Fest take place?
- Jazz Fest takes place in New Orleans in late april into early may, and has been running since 1970. The exact dates for each edition can vary, so it's worth confirming them on the official website.
- Where is Jazz Fest held?
- It takes place in New Orleans (New Orleans, Louisiana).
- How do I follow the program and get tickets?
- At Jazz Live US we publish its shows in our Calendar listings as they are confirmed, and for the full line-up and tickets you can check the festival's official website. If you join Jazz Live US, we'll let you know when the line-up is announced.
The exact dates for each edition can vary. Check the festival's official website to confirm the line-up and tickets.