Nightlife & the Arts in New Orleans

No American town places such a premium on pleasure as New Orleans. From swank hotel lounges to sweaty dance clubs, refined jazz halls and raucous Bourbon Street bars, this city is serious about frivolity—and famous for it. Partying is more than an occasional indulgence in this city; it's a lifestyle. The bars and clubs that pulse with music are the city's lifeblood, and are found in every neighborhood. Like stars with their own gravity, they draw people through their doors to belly up to the bars or head feet first onto the dance floors. Blues, jazz, funk, R&B, rock, roots, Cajun, and zydeco—there are almost too many kinds of music and nightlife experiences to cover in one chapter. On any day or night of the year, the city is brimming with musical possibilities.

The French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny are the easiest places to find great music and nightspots. The venues are numerous and all within easy walking distance of each other. The nearby Warehouse District is an up-and-coming scene where New Orleans institutions like Howlin' Wolf, Mulate's, and Circle Bar have been joined by scores of new bars, clubs, and restaurants. Moving upriver through the Garden District and Uptown, you'll find some of the most famous music spots in the city, such as Tipitina's and Maple Leaf. The Bywater, Mid-City, and Tremé are residential neighborhoods with fewer commercial strips, but they too have their crown jewels, like Vaughan's, Bullet's, and Rock 'n Bowl.