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For a relatively small city, New Orleans has a remarkably vibrant and varied performing-arts community. While there are many traditional performance venues around town, one of the most exciting movements in recent years is the fringe theater action along Saint Claude Avenue, in the Bywater neighborhood. The annual Fringe Theater Festival brings pop-up performances, but there are also some permanent venues as well.
Held around Independence Day, this three-day festival brings in more than a half-million visitors and draws top names in R&B, pop, and hip-hop to the Caesars Superdome. The event also includes presentations by prominent African American figures, author talks, wellness seminars, parties, food and wine events, family activities, and so much more.
With stages set up throughout the Quarter and on the river at Woldenberg Park, the focus here is on free local entertainment—and, of course, food. A lot of locals consider this April festival the best in the city.
Since a $27-million post-Katrina renovation returned this stately venue to the game, this fabulous stage in the sculpture-filled Armstrong Park grounds have been hosting the New Orleans Opera Association, dance performances, local music productions, theater, and much more. With a state of the art sound system, a digital cinema screen, enhanced lighting, a new orchestra shell, and cutting-edge ballet flooring, the 2,100-seat theater is a fabulous venue for a special night out.
The biggest event on the city's cultural calendar is also the oldest—it's been around for nearly two centuries. Parades roll almost nightly for the last few weeks of the Carnival season, which starts on Twelfth Night and culminates on Mardi Gras. This extraordinary day, also known as Fat Tuesday, is the last blow-out party before Ash Wednesday ushers in the considerably more reserved season of Lent. Mardi Gras is a city holiday, with the streets taken over by costumed revelers, floats, marching bands, and throngs of partiers. Plastic beads are the currency of the day. Every year, Mardi Gras falls on a different date, but it's always in either February or March.
Top-notch local, national, and international musical talent takes to several stages the last weekend of April and first weekend of May. The repertoire covers much more than just jazz, with big-name rock and pop stars in the mix as well as dozens of lectures, cooking demonstrations, quality arts and crafts booths, and awesome food to boot. Next to Mardi Gras, the two-week Jazz Fest is the city's biggest draw; book your hotel as far in advance as possible.
The city's most iconic sandwich gets its deserved place in the sun at this popular Carrollton neighborhood food and music festival. A diverse lineup of 40 local chefs and restaurants offer more than 100 varieties of po'boys during a Sunday in November. Bring a friend to share sandwiches if possible, and get to the event as it opens to avoid long lines.
Each year in early October, art lovers and people-watchers alike pack galleries and shops along the Lower Garden District and Uptown stretches of Magazine Street for the annual Saturday-evening kickoff to the visual arts season. What's on the walls usually takes a back seat to the party scene, with many businesses offering snacks and pouring drinks.
Connected to the neighborhood's popular Broad Theater, this outdoor venue hosts music and film screenings several times throughout the week, with a concentrated number of shows on the weekend. You can enjoy snacks, cocktails, wine, and beer, all while taking in some of the most creative programming in the city just steps from Lafitte Greenway. Some events are free while others are ticketed.
Throughout the month of December, Canal Street sparkles with seasonal decorations, and historic homes across the city put on their holiday best. St. Louis Cathedral opens its doors for concerts almost every day, and thousands of carolers gather in Jackson Square to raise their voices by candlelight. You'll find specials at hotels, as well as holiday réveillon menus at restaurants. Celebration in the Oaks lights up City Park, and bonfires are set on the Mississippi River's levee from New Orleans into Cajun Country—a Cajun tradition illuminating the way for Papa Noel.
Three fun parades hit the streets of the French Quarter on Easter Sunday: a morning parade dedicated to the late socialite Germaine Wells that begins and ends at Antoine's Restaurant with a stop for Mass at St. Louis Cathedral; an afternoon parade led by local entertainer Chris Owens; and the finale, an incredible gay parade that takes the festive bonnet tradition to a whole new level.
This organization brings superior classical performers from all over the world to Tulane University's Dixon Hall. Concerts take place approximately once a month, and tickets usually cost about $35.
Since 1916, Le Petit Théâtre has entertained the French Quarter with plays, musicals, and variety shows. The oldest continuously running community theater in the United States occupies a historic building in the Quarter. The community-based group were originally housed in one of the Pontalba apartments on Jackson Square, but they quickly outgrew that space and moved to this building in 1922. The flagstone patio with its fountain is postcard-perfect. Renovations have resulted in many improvements to the theater itself, and also made room for Tableau, a restaurant featuring contemporary Creole fare by local restaurateur Dickie Brennan. The theater presents children's entertainment in addition to its usual calendar of classics, musicals, and dramas, often with local themes. Events in the Tennessee Williams Festival take place here in March.
The 2024 Grammy award-winning LPO holds court at the Orpheum Theater while continuing to perform at cultural institutions and around town. Check LPO's website event page for discounted open rehearsals and concerts in parks during the spring months.
An elegant, whitewashed building on a quiet residential street, this "Church of the Arts" has been hosting the Marigny Opera Ballet since 2014. Besides highly coveted private events and weddings, the House also hosts classical music productions, plays, and local music performances.
The city's prestigious dance organization performs both contemporary and classical works at the Orpheum Theater. The company also collaborates with other dance organizations and offers community and school programming, as well as classes.
Cinephiles can get their fix during this juried festival in October, which brings an influx of indie and film culture to town and commandeers screens at venues throughout the city. Of course, it's New Orleans, so there are also exceptional parties to attend all week. The Film Society, which presents the annual festival, also hosts screenings year-round, a French film fest, themed film series, and a gala.
Tulane's Shakespeare Festival, at the university's Dixon Concert Hall, interprets the Bard's work in a series of three to four imaginative, high-quality productions each season.
Winemakers and oenophiles from all over the world converge each year in late-Spring for five days of seminars, fine food, and the opportunity to sample hundreds of wines. Attendees can purchase individual tickets or multi-event packages. The Grand Tasting, where wines from around the world are poured alongside offerings by some of New Orleans' finest chefs, is a must.
Join the crowd for live music on Jackson Square, and help count down to the new year with the drop of a giant luminescent fleur-de-lis on the riverfront near Jax Brewery. A barrage of fireworks lights up the Mississippi as clocks strike midnight.
A visit to the city's last single-screen movie house, hidden in a residential area of Uptown, is a reminder of the days when neighborhood movie theaters offered entertainment as well as air-conditioned relief from the summer heat. The Prytania shows first-run crowd-pleasers, plus the occasional smaller independent feature and classic film. Concessions sells coffee, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, and snacks up front. Prytania Theatre also has a larger, multi-screen venue downtown.
The excellent Loyola music department hosts regular performances at its Roussel Performance Hall, including guest appearances by internationally known performers and the occasional opera.
Built in 1927, the Saenger has impressive ceiling decorations, a chandelier that came from a château near Versailles, and Italian baroque–style flourishes. As an anchor of the revitalized New Orleans theater district, it hosts an impressive Broadway in New Orleans series as well as national comedy and music headliners.
This weekend-long tribute to the late, great Louis Armstrong---nicknamed Satchmo---honors the man each August with jazz performances staged throughout the Quarter, seminars and discussions with Armstrong scholars, a Satchmo SummerFest Second-Line Parade through the Tremé and French Quarter, and plenty of local food to taste.
On Labor Day weekend, hundreds of thousands of members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies parade through the Quarter. What began as a small party among friends has evolved into one of the south's biggest gay celebrations. The parade rolls—and as the day wears on, staggers—along on Sunday, but Decadence parties and events begin Thursday evening and stretch throughout the weekend.
A couple of big parades roll on the weekend closest to March 17: one starts at Molly's at the Market and winds through the French Quarter; the other, in the Irish Channel, goes down Magazine Street and turns the area around neighborhood bars like Parasol's and Tracey's into one big, green block party. Then, on March 19, the town celebrates St. Joseph's Day with home-cooked food and goodie bags filled with cookies and lucky fava beans. Check the NOLA tourism website for announcements of beautiful, food-centric altars you can visit.
This theater produces three crowd-pleasing musicals every summer at Tulane's Dixon Hall. Single show tickets begin at $45 for adults ($35 for children), and tend to sell out fast.
Each July, the annual Tales of the Cocktail, billed as "the World's Largest Cocktail Conference," brings thousands of experts and enthusiasts together for an internationally acclaimed nearly week-long celebration dedicated to the artistry and science of making drinks. In addition to enjoying some of "the best cocktails ever made," attendees can participate in dinners, demonstrations, tastings, competitions, seminars, book signings, tours, and parties.
The annual March multiday tribute to the Streetcar Named Desire playwright draws well-known and aspiring writers, lecturers, and a handful of Williams's acquaintances, along with music and theater, both classic and original. It's both an opportunity to learn and a series of celebrations. The weekend always closes with contestants reenacting Stanley Kowalski's big "Stella-a-a!" moment.
Most second Sundays from 11 am to 3 pm, this quaint venue hosts a family-friendly Cajun brunch, a traditional "fais do-do," where a rowdy pack of tourists and locals crowd into the rustic space for live Cajun music. There's plenty of alcoholic beverages, coffee, and delicious food. Don't worry, beginner's dance lessons each brunch will have you Cajun two-steppin' in no time. The charge is usually $15 at the door on Sunday; other times, check the website for cultural events and concerts that take place here.
This community theater also houses an acting school, providing young local actors with an audience. Productions include musical dramatizations of musicians' biographies, as well as straight drama in small but careful productions. Some casts include local celebrities.
