French Quarter Festival offers plenty of father, son enjoyment

Will Chapman

My sons Daniel and Adam joined me for a guy’s weekend in New Orleans, enjoying a number of activities associated with the 25th annual French Quarter Festival. We’d done the New Orleans’ Jazz Fest a couple of years for our guy’s weekend, but it’s grown so big, we decided to try something different.

The French Quarter Festival is billed as the “largest free music festival in the South.” There was plenty of music, as the festival featured 17 stages within a reasonable walking distance of one another.

I counted more than 50 musical performances listed just on Saturday, just one day of the three-day event.

The performers weren’t the big-name acts you’ll find at Jazz Fest, but we found plenty that we thought were good and enjoyed the variety as well. We heard Dixieland and old New Orleans’ jazz, blues, funk, Latin and ’50s-style music. There were even performances of classical music and one offering opera.

There’s always good food in New Orleans, but the festival saw an amazing number of booths set up near the various venues offering all sorts of interesting things to eat and drink, billed as “the World’s Largest Jazz Brunch.” I counted more than 55 booth sponsors on the program.

We didn’t get there in time, but I saw later on the news that the winner of the oyster eating contest consumed something like 35 dozen raw oysters in, I think, eight minutes.

I love good raw oysters, but eating 52.5 oysters every minute doesn’t give you much time to enjoy the taste.

Among the many interesting sights and experiences we had, a few that stood out included:

• Not sure if it constitutes a miracle, but while listening to Smokey Greenwell and The Blues Knus featuring Margie Perez, a young woman in a wheelchair, sitting just in front of the small stage across the street from Brennan’s was waving her arms and swaying to the music, when she suddenly stood up and danced in place to a particularly upbeat number.

It was a bit shocking at first glance, but we later decided she wasn’t permanently wheelchair-bound and appeared to have a sprained ankle that had her temporarily in that chair.

• We saw what looked like a brand new Porsche convertible drive by, with a deep lustrous copper color. As we turned to admire this hot car pass, we laughed at the special license plate that pretty much summed it up, “NICE HUH.” It was.

• On our way back from dinner and more music, just after midnight, we came across a panel truck parked on the median on Esplanade.

A side panel was folded out, creating a stage on which a guitar player performed. Inside the truck was a drummer, beneath a lighted disco ball, and on top were four guys playing trumpet, trombone and other instruments.

They were really good, calling themselves The People’s Party. It was obvious in that location and at that time, they weren’t part of any official function, as was clear when a policeman came by and shut them down after three or four songs.

They’ve got an interesting story at www.myspace.com/thepeoplesparty, including a sample of their music.