NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is usually akin to a 14-ring musical circus — a variety of musical acts playing simultaneously on stages spread throughout the sprawling infield and grandstand of a historic horse racing track.
That changes Thursday afternoon, when 13 stages go silent before The Rolling Stones make their first appearance at the 54-year-old festival.
“We didn’t want to have 13 empty stages and no people in front of them when the Stones start singing favorites like ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ and ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash,’ ” festival producer Quint Davis told The Associated Press ahead of the festival. “Everyone who bought a ticket for that day primarily bought one to see The Stones.”
Jazz Fest is the second stop for the Stones on their Hackney Diamonds tour, launched in support of the well-received album they released last year, their first album of original material in 18 years. They had been scheduled to appear at the 50th Jazz Fest in 2019 but had to cancel because of Mick Jagger's heart surgery. A subsequent planned appearance was scrubbed in 2021 when the festival was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
When the gates opened under an overcast sky and slight breeze, hundreds of fans poured onto the festival grounds, most wearing T-Shirts with the Rolling Stones' signature “lips with tongue out” logo or one emblazoned with just the band's name.
“I was torn between seeing them before they die or seeing them before I do,” Nathan “Bam” Schulman, 75, an acupuncturist from Eugene, Oregon, said laughing.
Schulman said he had seen the Stones perform years ago in Oakland, California, but looked forward to Thursday's performance.
“They're such an inspiration,” he said. “I look back at them and remember a time of adventure, a time of being whoever you want to be, a time of being myself and when we'd say ‘Screw the establishment.’ They inspire me to keep on living.”
Vickie Clay, 38, who works in the auto industry in New Orleans, said seeing the Stones in person “was on her bucket list.”
“It will be my first time seeing them," she said. "I hope Mick Jagger does his ‘chicken dance’ moves, but whatever he does will be worth every penny.”
Kerry Dantzig, 54, of San Francisco, said she regularly attends Jazz Fest “for the food, for the music and to meet up with old friends.”
“I'm hoping Mick and the Stones sound good,” said a smiling Dantzig, who works in the insurance industry. “I mean, they're 80 years old, you know? Still, I can't wait to see Mick Jagger shaking his caboose.”
Henri Lellouche, 63, a retired advertising executive from Fairfield, Connecticut, said he has seen the band perform previously and added that it was a good idea to combine them with Jazz Fest.
“I haven't heard a lot of their new stuff. But I love the older music, the blues tinge, and I love watching them perform. I mean it's hard to believe they're the same age as Joe Biden,” he said.
Fans of New Orleans rhythm and blues artists will be watching to see if the legendary group perform “Time Is On My Side,” which was an early hit for the band. New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas had success with the song in an earlier recording, and Thomas told WVUE-TV in an interview that “there's a possibility” she might perform it with the band.
Thursday's weather for the outdoor festival is a little sketchy. Forecasts show a mostly cloudy skyline, with temperatures in the mid-80s Fahrenheit (around 30 Celsius). But there's up to a 40% chance of rain in the afternoon.
Dumpstaphunk, a funk-fusion band born in New Orleans with descendants from the city's well-known Neville family, plays just before the Stones hit the festival's largest stage. Dumpstaphunk is mourning the recent death of bassist Nick Daniels III, a co-founder of the group who died Sunday. A cause of death has not been released.
