Lafayette Square Park will fill with blues guitar and barbecue smoke Oct. 9-11 as the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival marks its 20th year, bringing Grammy winner Ruthie Foster, New Orleans guitarist Samantha Fish and soul legend Booker T. Jones to a lineup spread across 18 performances on two stages. General admission remains free, just as it has been since the festival launched in 2006.
The festival was born out of New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina, created to provide work for Louisiana musicians and culture bearers and to help rebuild the city's cultural economy, according to Biz New Orleans. It was originally known as the New Orleans Blues Festival, drawing roughly 5,000 attendees in its early years before expanding to a third evening in 2011. Today it draws nearly 20,000 attendees, per the same report.
Other performers include George Porter Jr. & Runnin' Pardners, Cedric Burnside, Little Freddie King, Johnny Sansone, Erica Falls & Vintage Soul, Mia Borders, and Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience featuring Marcella Simien, according to Myneworleans.com. Performances run from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, then 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, split between the St. Charles Avenue and Camp Street stages, Biz New Orleans reports.
A Tribute to the Man Who Helped Build It
This year's festival includes an All-Star Tribute to Scott Aiges, who served as the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation's director of programs, marketing and communications from 2007 to 2019 and helped develop the festival itself. Aiges died earlier in 2026, according to the same Biz New Orleans report, which adds that the musicians who will take part in the tribute have not yet been announced.
Sarita M. Carriere, interim executive director of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, which presents the festival, called it a long-standing monument of culture and community in New Orleans, per Biz New Orleans. The Foundation has described festival proceeds more broadly as supporting its year-round educational, economic and cultural programs, according to Country Roads Magazine.
Oral History Stage Returns With Blues Royalty
The festival's Oral History Stage will feature live interviews with artists including Linda Gail Lewis, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, George Porter Jr. and Booker T. Jones, exploring Southern music traditions and history, per Biz New Orleans. The stage had gone dark for several years before returning in 2024, according to jazzandheritage.org.
Beyond the music, the festival's Arts Market will showcase more than 20 local artisans selling ceramics, glassware, clothing, jewelry, portraits and skin care products, while a Food Market will bring together 14 local culinary and pastry vendors. Offerings range from barbecue and seafood to Vietnamese and other international cuisine, with named vendors including Cochon King BBQ, Central City BBQ & Las Cruces Tex Mex, Magasin Vietnamese Cafe, Que Pasta NOLA and Keyala's Pralines, Biz New Orleans reports.
A Guitar Built for the Occasion
Marking the anniversary, artist Michael Gauf hand-painted a Gretsch Electromatic Jet commemorating the festival's 20th year, which will be autographed by this year's performing artists and auctioned off to benefit the Foundation's community and educational programs. The Painted Axe Guitar Auction runs from Sept. 28 through 6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 11, per Biz New Orleans. VIP passes are sold out.
Fans who can't make it to Lafayette Square won't be entirely shut out: WWOZ 90.7 FM plans to broadcast and video stream live from the festival throughout the weekend. Those attending in person should leave the cameras at home for the sets themselves, as the festival's published guidance states plainly that audio or video recording of performers is not allowed, per jazzandheritage.org.
