MusicNOLA River Fest
Free
Music
Congo Square Rhythms Festival
Date
Saturday, Apr 3, 2027 to Sunday, Apr 4, 2027
Location
Louis Armstrong Park (Congo Square)
701 N. Rampart Street, New Orleans, LA 70116
701 N. Rampart Street, New Orleans, LA 70116
Where to stay
Congo Square is just across Rampart Street from the Quarter, and the closest French Quarter hotels are about four minutes away on foot.
Organized by
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation
About this happenin
Enslaved Africans gathered on Sunday afternoons in Congo Square to keep up their ancestral traditions, and each late March the Congo Square Rhythms Festival fills that ground in Louis Armstrong Park with two days of free music. The Mardi Gras Indian battle is a fixture: three tribes meet in Congo Square, face off, then join in prayer and the chant "Indian Red." Two stages run side by side, and the Congo Square Rhythms Stage and the Tremé Stage take turns with brass bands, funk, reggae and African dance and drumming ensembles. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, the organisation behind Jazz Fest, runs it. There is a kids' area with crafts, plus food and arts markets. Music starts about 11 a.m. and runs to 7:30 p.m. on both days. Donations are accepted at the park entrances. Pets other than service animals are not allowed, and outside food and drink are kept out. Performances can't be recorded. Wheelchair drop-off is at the St. Ann Street and Basin Street gates.
More in April: 5 other New Orleans events.
Where
Louis Armstrong Park (Congo Square) · 701 N. Rampart Street, New Orleans, LA 70116
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