The Meters are returning home for Jazz Fest season with two major shows. During the 2026 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the legendary funk band will play a reunion show at the Saenger Theatre and a second night at the Fillmore. Surviving original members will take the stage, with Ivan Neville filling the keyboard role once held by his uncle, Art Neville. The Saenger concert falls on one of Jazz Fest’s busiest weekend nights, making it feel less like a typical “night show” and more like a major hometown event, as reported by ATG Tickets.
Saenger date, presales and official listings
Live Nation and Dayglo have a reunion billed at the Saenger Theatre for May 2 during Jazz Fest’s middle weekend. The venue’s ticketing page lists a Live Nation presale on Jan. 15 at 10 a.m. CT and a general on-sale on Jan. 16 at 10 a.m. CT, according to ATG Tickets. The concert listing and lineup also appear on the Live Nation event page, per Live Nation.
A nautical leak: the Fillmore night slipped out at sea
The companion show at the Fillmore is listed for April 24, with tickets slated to go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, a detail first reported by NOLA.com. That same report notes that bassist George Porter Jr. let the Jazz Fest weekend Saenger date slip during an onstage interview aboard the Eurodam while the Big Easy cruise was sailing between the Mississippi River mouth and Cozumel.
Lineup and Ivan Neville's role
The reunion brings together founding members George Porter Jr., Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste and Leo Nocentelli with Cyril Neville, and lists Ivan Neville on keyboards and vocals. Those names appear on the bill on the Live Nation event page, according to Live Nation. The GMPLive event page notes that this will be the band’s first performance as The Meters since Art Neville’s death in 2019, per GMPLive.
Openers and demand
Some ticket listings and local event pages pair Dumpstaphunk with the Saenger show, hinting at a full Neville-family funk night. Resale and ticket-aggregation pages are already signaling strong demand, and listings show the Saenger reunion sold out the same day tickets went on sale, according to Bandsintown.
Why this matters for Jazz Fest weekend
Reuniting the core of The Meters in the middle of Jazz Fest underscores how much New Orleans still shapes American rhythm and groove, and it hands festivalgoers another headliner-level target after the daytime Fair Grounds sets wind down. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival stretches across two weekends in late April and early May, and the Saenger night is slotted into the busiest part of that run, according to the festival’s official calendar.
