Every spring, the Fair Grounds — a thoroughbred racing venue operating since 1852 and one of the oldest in the United States — becomes the site of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, one of the most celebrated music festivals in the world. The Fair Grounds is the third-oldest continuously operating racetrack in the United States, having survived the Civil War, when Union troops used it as a camp, and Hurricane Katrina, which flooded it badly in 2005. The racing season runs from Thanksgiving through March, and the Thanksgiving opening day is a major New Orleans social event.
But for most of the world, the Fair Grounds is inseparable from Jazz Fest, which was founded in 1970 by George Wein and now draws more than four hundred thousand people over two weekends each spring. Jazz Fest is not simply a music festival; it is the most comprehensive presentation of Louisiana culture anywhere on earth. Fourteen stages run simultaneously, presenting jazz, gospel, blues, R&B, funk, Cajun, zydeco, bounce, rock, and classical.
The food booths serve a concentrated survey of Louisiana cuisine: crawfish étouffée, cochon de lait po-boys, softshell crab, muffulettas, boudin, and the alligator sausage cheesesteak that has become its own institution. The Mardi Gras Indians parade through the infield in their full regalia on dedicated days. The Fair Grounds grounds themselves, with their large oaks and intimate scale, make the festival feel like something that has always existed here.