Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, aka “Jazz Fest,” is the signature annual music and cultural event of the city and has been called America’s greatest festival.

Celebrating the music, food, and arts and crafts of all of Louisiana since 1970, Jazz Fest is an essential showcase of the rich heritage of the region, and hundreds of thousands attend the event each year. Local music heroes are joined on 14 stages by some of the most important figures in entertainment, highlighting the connections between Louisiana culture and the world.

The film weaves together live performances and interviews from the 50th anniversary of the iconic festival, featuring some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Jimmy Buffet, Earth, Wind & Fire, Irma Thomas and many others, along with a wealth of archival documentary footage from the past half century. This film not only captures the Festival in all of its beauty and glory, but also delves deep into the rich culture of The Big Easy.

“From a filmmaking standpoint, capturing so successfully the spirit of such a multi-faceted celebration sounds like a logistical impossibility. But here it is.” ~Mike Scott, New Orleans Times-Picayune

“It’s a history lesson you can dance to, and at times it’s an unexpectedly mournful and moving portrait of a city that has an intimate relationship with death and damage.” ~Steve Pond, TheWrap