Make sure to coordinate your Jazz Fest attire with an umbrella and rain boots if you’re planning to head out to the Fair Grounds for the first day of the fest Thursday (April 25). The National Weather Service is forecasting rain showers and thunderstorms Thursday starting after 1 p.m. There’s about a 70% chance of rain up until 1 a.m. Friday morning. The good news: the remainder of the first weekend of Jazz Fest is looking beautiful. Meteorologists are expecting only a slight chance of rain showers and thunderstorms Friday. It will be mostly sunny, with about a 20% chance of rain, and high temperatures near 78 degrees. Saturday and Sunday will also be sunny with temperatures in the high 70s. Jazz Fest runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday to Sunday this week and next (April 25-May 5). NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune reporters will be at the Fair Grounds providing updates on performances, where to get great food, and of course, festival fashion. For live coverage follow here. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up This is what the National Weather Service is forecasting for the rest of this week: Tuesday: Mostly sunny with high temperature of 78, low of 64 degrees. Wednesday: Mostly cloudy with a high temperature of 79, low of 66 degrees. Thursday: 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms with a high temperature of 76, low of 64 degrees. Friday: 20% chance of rain and thunderstorms with high temperature of 78 and low of 63 degrees. Saturday: Sunny with a high near 79 degrees, low of 63 degrees. Sunday: Sunny with a high near 81 degrees, low of 65 degrees.<doc-sep>2:50 p.m.: Royal Teeth are near the beginning of its set on Gentilly Stage, playing the intense and smashy “Time Bomb,” followed by a cover of The Knife “Heartbeats,” the latter featuring Nora Patterson on some strong lead vocals. The band’s anthemic “Mais La” follows, a Louisiana French slang of sorts from its native southern Louisiana, meaning “so there!” or “that’s that!” with singer/bassist Gary Larsen inspiring a rousing call and response with the crowd. The band tries its hand at another cover, Santigold’s “Can’t Get Enough of Myself,” as well, followed by its newest single, released on Friday, “Rivalry.” The band wraps up the set with the sweet and swoony “Kids Conspire” and its signature single “Wild.” Before their set, Patterson and Larsen catch up with Billboard about “Rivalry” and how playing Jazz Fest— even after doing it seven times— still makes Larsen nervous. “You’d think I wouldn’t care anymore,” he says. “It’s more like I don’t want stuff to go wrong. But it’s usually okay.” And Royal Teeth is an anomaly among even its generation of New Orleans bands, in that their music has steeped little to none in what’s considered traditionally New Orleans (brass, jazz, blues, funk, etc.) “There’s always that thing in the back of my head [when playing to a Jazz Fest crowd], ‘Should we jam out more, or something?’ But I think at the end of the day you just gotta do you,” Larson adds. 3:40 p.m.: It’s 50th Anniversary of Jazz Fest Storytime with Bonnie Raitt at Acura Stage and she’s dropping anecdotes, music history and names like mad. “This is the greatest festival in the world for artists of all stripes,” she says from Acura Stage, and points out “it’s an endangered species,” which is sadly too true. Too few festivals do what Jazz Fest does. Raitt calls it “hallowed ground,” even, but it when comes to all the Jazz Fests she’s played (this is her tenth!) and the thick and thin of her career, well, “That’s why I don’t wanna write a book, there’s some things that I don’t even wanna remember.” She’s a font of bluesy wisdom but she keeps the set moving with “Unintended Consequence of Love” with New Orleans gadfly and pianist Jon Cleary. She introduces her longtime side men, including Hutch Hutchinson on bass, Ricky Fataar on drums and George Marinelli on lead guitar before “Need You Tonight” off her latest 2015 LP Dig In Deep. Raitt dug deep into wardrobe to avoid being noticed at the fest or around town, where she wore a hat and sunglasses to avoid being mobbed. “I’ve heard some of the most treacherously great music the last few days” at the fest, she says. She mentions the Cultural Pavillion and dedicates “One Belief Away” as tribute to the late recently passed Oliver Mtukudzi, a co-writer on the track. Raitt covers The Fabulous Thunderbirds song “I Believe I'm in Love” with Cleary on piano and a little hip check from her to punctuate its final note. “Damn, Cleary, you’re a mess in all the right ways!” She has kind words for John Prine as well (“having a helluva year,” she says, followed by a rueful, “It’s a miracle any of us are still around!”). It’s all by way of her introduction to “Angel from Montgomery,” Prine penned but Raitt popularized. She remarks on the 30th anniversary of Nick of Time before playing “Something to Talk About.”Then there’s a funked-up version of “Love Letter” from Nick of Time, dedicated to all the New Orleans funk greats. Too many great Raitt tunes and anecdotes to list, she winds down her set with the maudlin “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” Raitt sat down with Billboard earlier to talk her personal Jazz Fest history, the fest’s significance and ways she sees music at the fest and around New Orleans without being noticed. “This festival changed the whole nature of festivalgoing,” she says, nodding at what set the bar for fully immersive live-music experiences in the ’70s. “There were Grateful Dead concerts, and then there was Jazz Fest. It was a precursor to Coachella and Bonnaroo and a lot of festivals were modeled on it.” If it’s changed much at all, Raitt said, it was “the volume” of it. “They need to get those headliners in there, sometimes people wish it weren’t so crowded, but it’s just the way they keep the economics of it going.” So how has Raitt been able to enjoy it all this years without being asked for selfie every ten steps she walks? “It’s a total immersion of food and culture,” she says. “I try to plan a couple days off before, I put on a hat and be incognito and just be a fan, you know? I love just being among a swarm of people, which I don’t get at my own gigs. It’s been great to go around and pick and choose what to eat and which acts to see when. The fun part is the audience, for me, as well.” 4:50 p.m.: Near the beginning of the set, Emily Sailers, one half of Indigo Girls, introduces “Elizabeth” as a “where is she now?” college love song about a girl Sailers was in love with at Tulane, “in that way you love someone when you’re in college,” she says. It’s one of her many New Orleans memories that brought the Indigo Girls back to Jazz Fest this year. It doesn’t hurt to be playing there when the “we were old enough to drink in Louisiana” line gets a big laugh from the crowd absolutely packing out the Sheraton New Orleans Fais Do-Do Stage. After that is “Become You” and what the Indigos’ other half Amy Ray calls “a traveling song,” “Get Out the Map,” a very earnest road trip narrative. Violin (or fiddle, depending on whom you ask) plays a central role in the sounds of this set, with a instrumental fiddle break as an acknowledgement of the stage’s Cajun fiddle music leanings. The jam ends up in “The Wood Song,” with a beautiful violin lead.<doc-sep>Before the New Orleans Jazz Fest opens its doors each year, we share our list of best of the fest dishes based on what we’ve tasted in years gone by. The fest’s menu is pretty darn consistent from year to year, so like us many veteran festers know what they want to eat before the gates open. On day one, we fan out and taste all of the new dishes and re-try and spot-check other dishes as the Fair Grounds. Among the things we tried was the redfish Baquet. Lil’ Dizzy’s Cafe has served its trout Baquet for more than 30 year at the festival. This year, they’ve subbed in redfish for the trout and we think it just might be better. A large, lightly bread and fried redfish fillet is ladled with a generous portion of buttery crabmeat. This is a dish you’d expect to find in a white tablecloth restaurant. It’s well worth the $10. Another great find is outside the Cultural Exchange Pavilion. Carmo restaurant is selling a curry dish that made us swoon. The Colombo de poulet, or Martinican chicken curry, has a spicy kick, but that spice is augmented by a brightly flavored curry. The chicken is tender and the rice is perfectly cooked. While you are there, grab a trio of Pão de queijo, or Brazilian cheese bread, lovely, chewy, slightly salty disks that are mysteriously addicting after a couple of bites. For vegetarians, we can recommend the flavorful, colorful “Bunny” chow or South African veggie curry, too. We found new beers on the grounds, a Terrapin Up-Hi IPA. Find it at the draft booth near the Blues Tent, and the brewer’s Luau Pog IPA in the all of the beer tents. The festival features more than 70 food and drink vendors with many offering multiple-choice menus, so the lineup can be daunting to newcomers. Below you will find our favorite dishes, with those few additions based on our 2019 survey. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell continues on Friday (April 26) through Sunday (April 28) and May 2-5, at the New Orleans Fair Grounds Race Course at 1751 Gentilly Blvd. Tickets are $75 in advance, $85 at the gate for adults, $5 for children. For more details on the festival, visit nojazzfest.com. Food is listed by area and by vendor. Enjoy! FOOD AREA 1 This group of food vendors runs parallel to the Grandstand. It is near the Gentilly and Sauvage entrances. Expect long but fast-moving lines at prime lunch and dinner times. Cajun Jambalaya ($7) and fried chicken dark meat 2-piece ($6), white meat 2-piece ($7), combo dark meat ($10), white meat ($11) Catering Unlimited The line keeps moving at this longtime vendor’s booth, so the well-fried chicken stays hot and fresh. The meaty, brown jambalaya makes for a filling, big-appetite combo plate. Hot Sausage Po-Boy ($7) Vaucresson The Vaucresson family was at the very first fest, so 2019 marks the sausage-maker’s 50th year. All of the sausages are good. Try the sausage combo plate ($9), if you can’t decide. Lemonade ($3) Joyce’s If it’s hot, this 20-ounce, sweetened lemonade will cool you right down. The fruit salad ($4) is a light bite, too. Pecan Catfish Meuniere, Seafood Mirliton Casserole, Fried Crab Cake ($7); any two items combo ($12) Gallagher's Grill If you only get one dish here, make it the seafood mirliton casserole. If you’re hungry, get the whole combo of buttery meuniere sauce and pecans are over catfish and the crab cake. Muffuletta ($7) DiMartino’s Famous Muffuletta Locals know this muffuletta is the real deal. If you’re visiting and this is your one chance to try it, dig in the sliced meats, cheese and olive salad. We like the turkey giardiniera po-boy or salad ($7), too. Smoky Bacon Collard Greens ($5) Squeal's Smoke Street Catering Collard greens and bacon make a beautiful pair and they make this dish a great side bite. Seafood au Gratin ($6), Spinach Artichoke Casserole ($6), Sweet Potato Pone ($4); combo plate of all three ($12) Ten Talents Catering Each of these dishes stands on its own as a favorite. Combine them if you’re hungry. Vegetarians, can grab the casserole as an entrée. For a morning or mid-afternoon snack, get the sweet potato pone to sip with coffee. Red Beans and Rice with Sausage ($8), without ($6) Burks and Douglas These beans from a longtime vendor are a classic example of the New Orleans Monday staple – with or without the sausage. Creole Stuffed Crab (with potato salad) ($9), Catfish Amandine (with potato salad) ($9), Potato Salad ($3); Combo ($12) Stuf Hapn Event Catering Get the combo and enjoy the savory hot crab, the crisp catfish and the cool smooth potato salad. Find a spot where you can sit and savor. Crawfish Remoulade ($7), Shrimp and Crabmeat Ravigote ($8) Papa Ninety Catering Both of these do their namesake proud. The remoulade has a bit of kick and the ravigote is a creamier, light dressing. Both come atop crunchy lettuce. Cochon de Lait Po-Boy ($9) Love at First Bite This po-boy always makes our best-of when it is on a festival menu. It features well-cooked pulled pork with crunchy, tangy slaw. Don’t want the bread? Ask them to put the meat atop the slaw. Ropa vieja ($8), Paleta de cafe con leche ($4) Congreso Cubano The classic Cuban dish of stewed beef gets treated with the respect it deserves here. This Popsicle-style dessert is a blend of espresso and condensed milk that will have your eyes rolling back in your head. We’re eager to try the new yucca fries ($6) this year as well. Fried Oyster Spinach Salad ($8) Vucinovich's Restaurant Every year and every time we try this, the oysters have been perfectly fried and hot. They are perched on fresh spinach drizzled with a creamy dressing. (Chicken lovers, check out this paneed chicken po-boy ($8),too.) Mango Freeze ($5) WWOZ Radio This not-too-sweet treat, which also is available near the Fais Do Do Stage, is a pure-tasting break from all of the rich foods at the fest. Fried Pork Chop Sandwich ($5) Ms. Linda's Catering<doc-sep>More than 70 acts including Earth, Wind and Fire and Alanis Morissette are scheduled Thursday, along with scores of food and arts and crafts vendors. A wet forecast cast an opening-day damper on the 50th New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The National Weather Service said there was an 80% chance of rain Thursday, and some storms might be severe. More than 70 acts including Earth, Wind and Fire and Alanis Morissette are scheduled Thursday, along with scores of food and arts and crafts vendors. The festival generally goes on rain or shine, though storms canceled one Friday in 2004. In 2016, storms ended the next-to-last day before Stevie Wonder and other headliners could start. The following day, some closers left stages early, though performers in big tents were able to finish their sets.<doc-sep>
12:30 p.m. : Jazz Fest’s gates open 90 minutes behind the usual scheduled 11 a.m. due to heavy thunderstorms in the region, which include a tornado watch for Orleans Parish issued by the National Weather Service. It would amount to merely some inconvenient mud and waterlogged shoes for most Jazz Fest attendees. However, the skies over the Fair Grounds Race Course started clearing up less than three hours after Gates, with the hot sun baking the grounds’ muddy exterior track back into something walkable by the time the headliners hit. Only the first acts of the day were cancelled. 2:30 p.m.: Jazz Fest producer and emcee Quint Davis is interviewing legendary festival producer and Jazz Fest co-founder George Wein at the Alison Miner Music Heritage Stage to a packed house. It’s not just because of the sideways rain outside. Davis and Wein — as well as the late great Miner — are responsible for making the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival what is and what it became. The anecdotes fly fast and furious: Wein, now 93, trying to convince a hoteliers’ association in New Orleans in a pre-1964 Civil Rights Act United States that a world-class (read: integrated) jazz festival could never come to a city with legal segregation. “I knew I couldn’t get anything by telling them how stupid they were,” Wein says with a grin. So he left them in the dust, starting his own thing. His wife at the time — Joyce Wein, who passed in 2005 – was black. He couldn’t bring her on trips to New Orleans due to segregation laws. It’s barely a hot take to suggest Wein started Jazz Fest as one big racial-justice “I told you so.” And even though Wein calls himself a “genius” half-jokingly (“I don’t call myself a genius often,” he adds), he’s not above a little humility. After a young New Orleans rapper performing at the fest asked him backstage what his name was— a humbling moment, no doubt— he offers up a pearl of wisdom: “What you did is what counts, not who you are.” If Wein is the oracle, Davis is the student and charismatic emcee, always at the ready with a clever comment. “George would tell me real simple things that it would take me six to eight years to understand,” Davis says. “What we were doing here was really a testament to what you could do if you didn’t know any better. That’s the secret of what we’re doing down here.” Wein adds, “I just knew if you could do the first year, you could do the second year and if you did the second year and they wanted a third year, you were off to the races.” Wein was sitting in a horsetrack grandstand when he said this and he couldn’t have made the metaphor of it all more clear. Round and round Jazz Fest goes, on a track, pulling off festivals with few to no hitches each year. It’s the circle of life, the circle of the track. One term Wein used was “wheels-to-wheels” regarding the multiple generations of Jazz Fest attendees, from eight months old to 80 years old, one who who are in strollers and ones who are in wheelchairs. That’s a beautiful thing and there’s a very small handful of U.S. festivals one can say that about. 8507714] 3:30 p.m.: The Doobie Brothers hit Acura Stage on all pistons firing, with the driving syncopation and piano of “Rockin’ Down the Highway,” a hit from the band’s Tom Johnston era followed by “Takin’ It to the Streets,” a hit from the Doobies’ Michael McDonald era. With the band’s horn section, the band swells to upwards of 10 members, with a four-man offensive line of guitar/bass headstocks up front. Every bit of sound and harmony proves particularly vital on a revved-up arrangement of the instrumental “Busted Down Around O’Connelly Corners” followed by “Ukiah” (tracks nine and ten off the Doobies’ landmark 1973 LP The Captain and Me) with tight vocal harmonies and crisp horn lines. Later on comes “Sweet Maxine” and “Jesus Is Just Alright With Me,” rounded out by the singles “China Grove,” “Black Water” (one of the Doobies’ two Hot 100 number ones) and “Listen to the Music,” inspiring a huge singalong closer. Johnston sat down with Billboard earlier in the day and talked legacy. Which seems right, since the Doobies are almost as old as Jazz Fest itself.