Month By Month
TOP EVENTS
Mardi Gras February/March
Jazz Fest April/May
Super Sunday March
French Quarter Festival April
January
Contrary to popular belief, New Orleans gets cold, and January is pretty nippy. Sports events and tourism-oriented New Year’s debauchery give way to the professional partying of Carnival Season by month’s end.
zJoan of Arc Parade
On January 6, New Orleans celebrates the birthday of the Maid of Orleans – Joan of Arc – with a family-friendly parade (www.joanofarcparade.com) that runs through the French Quarter. Parade-goers dress in meticulously detailed historical costume.
zMartin Luther King Jr Day
On the third Monday in January, a charming midday parade, replete with brass bands, makes its way from the Bywater to the Tremé, down St Claude Ave.
February
It’s Carnival time! In the weeks preceding Mardi Gras the madness in the city builds to a fever pitch, culminating in the main event, the party to end all parties.
zCarnival Season
During the three weeks before Mardi Gras, parades kick off with more frequency each day. Large ‘krewes’ (parade marching clubs) stage massive affairs, with elaborate floats and marching bands, that run along St Charles Ave and Canal St.
zMardi Gras Day
In February or early March, the outrageous Carnival activity reaches a crescendo as the city nearly bursts with costumed celebrants on Mardi Gras. It all ends at midnight with the beginning of Lent.
zTet
Folks of all backgrounds like to show up at Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in New Orleans East for firecrackers, loud music and great food during the Vietnamese New Year (www.mqvncdc.org).
March
The city has barely nursed its Mardi Gras hangover when the fun starts again. Locals call this Festival Season, as small concerts and free music events kick off every weekend.
3BUKU
In a city of old-school music and traditional jazz, BUKU is an unapologetically contemporary music festival that brims with EDM (electronic dance music), hip-hop and installation art.
3Congo Square Rhythms Festival
This huge world-music festival (www.jazzandheritage.org/congo-square) rocks into Congo Sq in mid- to late March; expect drumming, dancing, indigenous crafts and delicious food.
5Louisiana Crawfish Festival
This huge crawfish feed (www.louisianacrawfishfestival.com) qualifies as the epitome of southern Louisiana culture. It’s fun for the family, with rides, games and Cajun music. Held in nearby Chalmette in late March/early April.
zSt Patrick’s Day
The party picks up the weekend of Paddy’s Day (www.stpatricksdayneworleans.com) with the Jim Monaghan/Molly’s at the Market parade, which rolls through the French Quarter; and the Uptown/Irish Channel parade, where the float riders toss cabbages and potatoes.
zSuper Sunday
St Joseph’s Night, March 19, is a big masking event for black Indian gangs, who march after sunset around St Claude Ave and LaSalle St. The following Sunday, known as Super Sunday, tribes gather for a huge procession.
zTennessee Williams Literary Festival
The last weekend of March features a four-day fete in honor of Tennessee Williams. The playwright called New Orleans his ‘spiritual home.’ There’s a ‘Stell-a-a-a!’ shouting contest, walking tours, theater events, film screenings, readings and the usual food and alcohol.
April
Festival season continues. Concerts and crawfish boils pick up in frequency as the weather turns a balmy shade of amazing.
3French Quarter Festival
One of New Orleans’ finest events, the French Quarter Festival (www.fqfi.org) rocks the Vieux Carre in mid-April with stages featuring jazz, funk, Latin rhythms, Cajun, brass bands and R&B, plus food stalls operated by the city’s most popular restaurants.
zGay Easter Parade
On Easter Sunday, the LGBT+ population of New Orleans (and their straight friends) dress up in their hyperbolic, frilliest Sunday best, then march or ride in horse-drawn carriages past the gay bars of the French Quarter. Fabulous fun.
3Jazz Fest
The Fair Grounds Race Course – and, at night, the whole town – reverberates with good sounds, plus food and crafts, over the last weekend in April and first weekend of May for Jazz Fest.
May
There’s another month or two before the weather starts to get soupy and, to be honest, the days are already fairly hot. So too is the ongoing music, the food and the parties.
3Bayou Boogaloo
Mid-City gets to shine with this wonderful outdoor festival, held on the banks of pretty Bayou St John in mid-May. Expect the usual: food stalls, lots of bands and general good times.
5New Orleans Wine & Food Experience
This being a culinary town, the local food and wine fest (www.nowfe.com) is quite the affair. Join to attend various tastings, seminars and meal ‘experiences’ that push gastronomic frontiers. Late May.
July
There’s a sultry romance to summer that makes you want to sit in a sweat-stained tank top or summer dress and do nothing but drink iced tea. Don’t rest. The New Orleans calendar doesn’t let up.
3Essence Music Festival
Essence magazine sponsors a star-studded lineup for the largest celebration (www.essence.com) of African American culture in the country. Expect an absolutely devastating series of performances at the Superdome on the July 4 weekend.
zRunning of the Bulls
In mid-July the Big Easy Rollergirls dress up as bulls and chase crowds (www.nolabulls.com) dressed in Pamplona-style white outfits with red scarves. The ‘bulls’ run through the Warehouse District and CBD – trust us, this one’s lots of fun.
6Tales of the Cocktail
Sure, New Orleans is a 24/7 festival, but this three-day event (www.talesofthecocktail.com) sets its sights high. Appreciating the art of ‘mixology’ is the main point, and getting lit up is only an incidental part of the fun.
August
Damn. It’s hot. So very, very hot. And there may be hurricanes on the horizon. Who cares? The eating, drinking and merry-making continue, and hotel rates are bottoming out.
2Red Dress Run
The Nola Hash House Harriers lead this charity run (www.noh3.com) through the Quarter and Downtown. It’s a 3- to 4-mile run with one rule: wear a red dress. Or less. Open to both men and women, so there’s lots of crimson dressing up afoot.
3Satchmo SummerFest
Louis Armstrong’s birthday (August 4) is celebrated with four days of music and food in the French Quarter. Three stages present local talents in ‘trad’ jazz, contemporary jazz and brass bands.
zSouthern Decadence
Billing itself as ‘Gay Mardi Gras,’ this five-day Labor Day weekend festival (www.southerndecadence.net) kicks off in the Lower Quarter. Expect music, masking, cross-dressing, dancing in the streets and a Sunday parade that’s everything you’d expect from a city with a vital gay community.
September
The heat doesn’t let up and the threat of hurricanes gets even worse, but the music certainly doesn’t take a break.
6NOLA on Tap
The beer scene in New Orleans has been overflowing (as it were) with good talent – microbreweries and nanobreweries crop up all the time. This festival (http://nolaontap.org) celebrates said suds in all their variety.
October
Locals love dressing up, costumes, ghost stories and the supernatural, so October is a pretty big month in these parts.
3New Orleans Film Festival
Theaters around the city screen the work of both local and internationally renowned filmmakers for one week in mid-October (www.neworleansfilmsociety.org/festival).
3Voodoo Music & Arts Experience
If you thought New Orleans was all jazz and no rock, visit during Halloween weekend. Past acts at Voodoo have included the Foo Fighters and the Flaming Lips; these days, the festival is incorporating more hip-hop and dance music.
November
The weather is cooling down and winter is arriving. Arts and entertainment events, plus some of the best sandwiches you’ll ever eat, fill up the calendar.
zAll Saints Day
Cemeteries fill with crowds who pay their respects to ancestors on November 1. It is by no means morbid or sad, as many people have picnics and parties. It wouldn’t be out of line for families to serve gumbo beside the family crypt.
5Po-Boy Festival
Fifty thousand sandwich-lovers descend on Riverbend in November to sample po’boys from New Orleans’ best restaurants (www.poboyfest.com) – the sandwiches are good, but the crowds are intense.
5Tremé Creole Gumbo Festival
At this family friendly festival (www.jazzandheritage.org/treme-gumbo), the iconic New Orleans dish and the iconic New Orleans neighborhood are united and celebrated during a weekend long party.
December
Christmas brings flickering torch lights, chilly winds, gray skies and a festive atmosphere to this city of festivals.
zCelebration in the Oaks
This City Park celebration is New Orleans’ take on Christmas in America, with 2 miles of oak trees providing the lit-up superstructure. You can view it in its entirety from your car or in a horse-drawn carriage.
zFeux de Joie
‘Fires of joy’ light the way along the Mississippi River levees above Orleans Parish and below Baton Rouge in December and on Christmas Eve (December 24).