French Quarter Fest

Down here in N'awlins, we measure time in festival seasons. Everybody knows about Mardi Gras. Many people know about JazzFest. But, oh, those are just the beginning. Just in the summer, we have New Orleans Wine and Food Experience. We have White Linen Night and Dirty Linen Night. We have so many festivals, it's hard to keep track of them. But they kick off the season with French Quarter Fest.

This year's FQF broke the single-day attendance record, with 303,000 people attending on Saturday. No, that isn't a typo. That's three hundred, three thousand people. Packed into the (not square) blocks that is the French Quarter. That's this:

Realistically, those 303,000 people were mostly gathered within these yellow lines:

And specifically, clustered in these areas:

The word you're looking for is madhouse. Delightful, colorful, musical madhouse.

It starts small, so you think it's not as crazy as everyone has said.

A nice jazz band, reasonably accessible concessions. Great people watching.

Trust, these guys were swinging

Walk right up crawfish

People watching the dancers; just a couple enjoying the band

Aaaaand, realizing I'm being people watched right back

Then, as you move on, you realize it is getting more crowded.

See? More crowded.

Maybe by a lot

Okay, definitely by a lot

A whole lot

But the stages get bigger, too:

As do the concessions:

Until there's nothing left to do but head to the secret coffee shop that is rightthere, but no one knows about it:

Please note: quiet and empty. Also? No address or map telling you where to find it. Yeah, that's intentional.

And retreat back all of three blocks to the CBD. The very empty CBD:

Only thing missing is a tumbleweed

If you go for an hour, a day, or the whole weekend, one thing can't be denied: NOLA sure as hell knows how to throw a party.

The guy in the hat ended up in several pictures. We were on the same path and mosey pace.

One hell of a party.