The summer rock festival is a hallowed tradition, and the mere mention of a Lollapalooza or a Bonnaroo calls to mind more than a few indelible images: The restless multitudes massed outside the brimming porta-potties, the eight-dollar hot dogs washed down with twelve-dollar beers, so many sunburned and shirtless party warriors being carried to the quiet mists of the chillout tent. The sun is out; people are on vacation; sometimes it rains, and we get naked in the mud.
This past Sunday was one of those beautiful, crisp fall days. The sun was shining brilliantly in a clear, blue sky. The temperature got up to the upper 70s and there was a slight breeze. And my son and I were attending our second Voodoo Fest and considering the time well spent!
The black-clad frontman saved all commentary for the encore. "Last time we tried to play Voodoo, Katrina came and (messed) things up," he said. "A couple months ago, it looked like Gustav was going to come. I thought, 'Was it us, because we're playing Voodoo and cursing New Orleans?'"
Stephen Rehage lost thousands of dollars in the making of the first New Orleans Voodoo Experience, the outdoor music festival he first produced in 1999 that only drew about 8,000 people.
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The Voodoo Fest, as it is most commonly referred to, gained further local admiration in 2006 when it opened its arms to include more New Orleans talent with the addition of the WWOZ Stage and Preservation Hall Tent. Now music representing this city’s heritage -- jazz, R&B, funk, brass bands --enjoys its own section within the festival’s lovely City Park locale.
The 10th annual Voodoo Music Experience will take place October 24-26. This year's festival, dubbed T
he Tenth Ritual, will be held once again in New Orleans' City Park. Voodoo will hold six stages, divided up into three sections: Le Ritual, Le Flambeau, and Le Carnival, inspired by the city's French culture. Many of the attendees from last year's festival asked the question of how next year could follow a lineup headlined by Rage and Smashing Pumpkins. Well folks, here's how: Read more »
When Mayor Ray Nagin, the mayor of the City of New Orleans, stepped up to the podium for a hastily-fashioned press conference three days after Hurricane Katrina's passage through the city, he said that the city was, "In a state of devastation."
Being one of the five deadliest storms in America's history, the substance of the Mayor's statement goes without saying, and the economic damage (the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the storm would slow the growth of inflation-adjusted U.S. GDP by up to 1.5%, or keep the country from about $161 billion of purchasing power; according to a later report). It was also estimated by an agency with a similar level of authority, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), that more than 20% of New Orleans' citizenry at the time-- up to 105,300 people at one point-- was left officially unemployed by the storm.
While few are fundamentally unaware of the high cost to both the nation and the city as a result of Katrina, few are also aware of exactly why so many residents lost their jobs and why the economy of New Orleans in particular was so susceptible to the storm's damage.
