The New Orleans Jazz Fest 2016 lineup is coming, with festival organizers planning a release for today, Jan. 19.
This page will be updated during the day so for the love of jazz, stay tuned.
NEW ORLEANS JAZZ FEST 2016 LINEUP
Social media fanfare usually accompanies the announcement, including a YouTube video posted to official event accounts.
The full lineup and schedule will also be posted on this website.
The festival, which is a joint project between AEG and Festival Productions Inc., returns to the New Orleans Fairgrounds on April 22 to April 24 and April 28 to May 1, 2016.
Although details about the lineup are kept under lock and key until the official announcement, some hints have slipped through the cracks.
First, Jack DeJohnette and Ravi Coltrane will make appearances, which we know because of a tour date linked on a record label website.
Second, it’s likely we’ll see Paul Simon return, who noted that he’s “coming back for Jazz Fest” during his tribute to Allen Toussaint at a benefit concert for New Orleans Artists against Hunger and Homelessness.
Paul Simon
Doobie Brothers voice Michael McDonald told the Omaha World-Herald he’d be at Jazz Fest, too.
Jazz Fest will have big — albeit attainably so — shoes to fill in 2016, having hit its largest attendance numbers in 2015 since Hurricane Katrina.
The crowds accounted for 460,000 attendees, according to Festival Productions, which does not give a day-by-day breakdown of admittance.
The swell was especially felt on the second Saturday, when Elton John and Ed Sheeran headlined.
There’s still room to grow, however, with past attendance figures hitting 650,000 in 2001 when Dave Matthews Band and Mystikal drew legions of fans.
Lineup details will be released slightly later than they were in 2015, when the announcement was made Jan. 12.
Hotels and travel: Jazz Fest usually secures preferred rates for visitors at a number of New Orleans hotels.
City buses will drop you three blocks from to the gates on the Esplanade Avenue side of the Fair Grounds. Streetcars also provides decent service, dropping passengers at Beauregard Circle near City Park.
