French Quarter Festival

At any time of the year, New Orleans is filled with people making spectacles of themselves. But if you add in a festival weekend, the spectacle becomes something worth seeing.

This weekend I strolled the streets of the French Quarter, taking in the sights of the French Quarter Festival. I’ve never attended a festival in New Orleans before, so I had added it to my list of things worth doing this year. A list that I need to move a little further along on or December will come and I will be forced to do something on my list every day. But I digress. I actually ended up at this festival unintentionally after the item on my list that I had planned for the day didn’t go off as intended. When we ended up in the middle of the festival, we seized the opportunity.

The first thing I noticed was the parking situation. I go into the city frequently, and I usually can get a parking spot for a relatively cheap price. Apparently, festivals are the time for everyone to capitalize on the lack of parking in the city. Parking spots near Canal Street were going for $115 according to one shop owner. A couple in line in front of us complained about the $50 fee for their parking spot. As we were searching for a spot, I actually saw a guy changing the sign for his parking area from $20 to $25.We paid $25 for a grass covered empty lot that some land owner in a lawn chair was selling spaces for the weekend. (Not to mention we walked and walked and walked.)

The stages of the festival’s entertainment were spread throughout the quarters along the river, but the street entertainment was just as lively. On every street corner, musicians populated the area with cases and containers to collect their tips. Several times as I walked past children playing, I thought that some music school must have told its students to get experience playing for an audience. In addition to musicians, there were stilt walkers, bible preachers, and silver and gold statue men, plus many more. It was a busy day for entertainment in the Quarters.

But of course with all of those people gathered together, tempers sometimes flair as well as the entertainers. With cars and carriages attempting to pass down streets filled with people, near accidents are prone to happen. I watched people yell at cars, get out of cars to yell back, and yell their discontent at the people on the streets. The crowded streets became a place to observe human interaction, the good and the ugly.

It was definitely an interesting day in the Quarters, but I would still rather stroll the streets when there a few thousand less people and everything doesn’t cost at least twice as much as usual. Moving onto the next item on my list now.