The Tremé Fall Festival returns to New Orleans this Saturday for its 11th annual celebration, bringing a second-line parade, live music, local food and a tour of the newly renovated St. Augustine Church with gospel spirituals to the historic neighborhood. The free event kicks off at 11 a.m. and runs until 6 p.m., filling the streets around St. Augustine Catholic Church with classic cars, arts and crafts, and a kids’ area.
According to WGNO, the festival starts with a second-line parade that travels through the Tremé neighborhood before concluding at the St. Augustine Catholic Church Yard, where the day’s main festivities take place. The parade itself begins at 11 a.m. at the New Orleans Career Center, located at 1331 Kelerec St., and follows a mile-long route into the heart of the neighborhood, per Where Y’at. The festival grounds themselves sit at the St. Augustine Catholic Church Yard and the surrounding neighborhood streets, according to Tremé Fest.
Once the parade reaches the church yard, the celebration opens up into a full day of programming. Live music, New Orleans cuisine, arts and crafts, a classic and vintage car showcase, and a kids’ area are all part of the lineup, WGNO reports, alongside a tour of the newly renovated St. Augustine Church featuring gospel spirituals. Tremé Fest’s own description of the festival points to local musicians bringing the sounds and spirit of New Orleans to the stage, plus a curated showcase of local food, artists, makers and vendors.
Honoring Two Pillars of Tremé Culture
Festival organizers said this year’s celebration honors Luther Gray and Wanda Rouzan, two figures closely tied to the neighborhood’s cultural legacy, per WGNO. Gray is described as a percussionist, founder of Bamboula 2000 and an advocate for preserving Congo Square, while Tremé Fest separately describes him as an ethnomusicologist, pioneering percussionist and cultural leader who has helped preserve New Orleans cultural traditions. Rouzan, meanwhile, is a vocalist and leader of A Taste of New Orleans, and the festival site calls her a celebrated vocalist, songwriter, cultural advocate and community leader.
The pairing reflects what Tremé Fest describes as its honoree focus: people and organizations tied to preserving the neighborhood’s cultural and musical heritage. The group’s music stage for the day draws from that same well, with a lineup that according to Where Y’at includes Wanda Rouzan & a Taste of New Orleans, Jeffery Broussard and the Nighttime Syndicate, the New Orleans Catahoulas, Julian “Juice” Gosin, and Corey Henry & the Tremé Funktet.
A Second Date Precedes the Public Celebration
Saturday’s free public festival isn’t the only date on the 2026 calendar. Tremé Fest describes a separate Patron Party held the previous Friday, October 16, featuring a live performance by Kurt Brunus along with cuisine, an open bar and an auction. Where Y’at frames the overall 2026 celebration as spanning both October 16 and October 24, with history and culture taking center stage across the two dates.
Sponsorship dollars behind the event go toward more than just a single day of programming. Per Tremé Fest’s sponsorship page, that support helps fund paid opportunities for local artists and culture bearers, preservation work at historic landmarks including St. Augustine Catholic Church, and the organization’s Culture Bearers Fund. The same page describes the festival as a free community cultural event that welcomes thousands of residents and visitors each year.
A Decade-Plus of Second-Lines Through Tremé
The festival’s roots run deeper than this year’s lineup. Last year’s 10th annual edition took place on a Saturday near St. Augustine Catholic Church at 1210 Governor Nicholls Street, according to Louisiana Data News Weekly. That 2025 event ran from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and was also free and open to the public, featuring performers including Leroy Jones & the Tremé All-Stars, the Original Pinettes Brass Band, Herlin Riley, Kermit Ruffins and Shamarr Allen’s “Ratchet Jazz,” alongside local cuisine, arts and crafts vendors, family-friendly activities, health screenings and guided church tours.
Looking back further, the milestone 10th-anniversary festival was described by Gambit as a celebration of Tremé’s history and its impact on New Orleans’ cultural traditions. That throughline — music, food and a second-line rooted in neighborhood heritage — carries into this year’s 11th edition, which keeps the same formula of free admission, a morning parade and an afternoon of honoring the people who’ve kept Tremé’s traditions alive.
