The 11th annual Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo Music & Art Festival returns to Bayou St. John from May 20-22nd. The free festival brings some of the best local musicians together with your favorite local artists, restaurants and boats to provide a family-friendly, easy-going festival on Bayou St. John.
Bayou Boogaloo Brings the Funk
One of the biggest draws of Bayou Boogaloo is going to be the music. Isn’t it always in New Orleans? We’re very lucky to have yet another free festival where we can catch some of the best up and coming local musicians alongside some of the most renown musical artists New Orleans has to offer. With three full days of music and three stages to choose from, you won’t be at a loss for good tunes.
On Friday, May 20th, choose between two stages of music (Bryan Subaru Dumaine Stage and the Mothership Foundation Orleans Stage) from 5p.m. through 9:15p.m. Artists include The Quickening, Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers, Truth Universal, Lynn Drury and The Wailers.
On Saturday, May 21st, a third stage, the Urban South Lafitte Stage will add some more acts as you have a full slate of music from 11:00 a.m. through 9:15 p.m. that day. Some of the bands and musical artists on Saturday include the Creole String Beans, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Seth Walker, Irma Thomas and many more.
On Sunday, May 22nd, you are treated to another full day of music (and yoga!) from the Red Hot Brass Band to Robin Barnes to Billy Iuso & Restless Natives to George Porter, Jr. and Running Partners, in addition to others.
For the full musical schedule lineup, click here.
Come for the Music, Stay for the Fun
Whether you’re a fan of New Orleans music, or you just enjoy heading out to the latest free event in town, Bayou Boogaloo offers much more than just music! Here are some of the other attractions you can expect:
Artist Vendors
Located between the Orleans and Dumaine bridges along the Bayou, the Bayou Boogaloo Art Market features more than 60 local and regional artists and artisans. You can probably spend all day long just browsing some of the unique art and handcrafted pieces, and possibly even take some home with you. Some of the many artists include: Beatrixbell Handcrafted Jewelry, Bonga-Chop Designs, Cathy’s Creations, Coconola Skincare, Heather Elizabeth Designs®, Ginger Kelly Glass Studio, Margie and the Moon, NOLA BOARDS, Queens Metal, Shae Shea LLC, and Tchoup Industries.
Family Fun Activities
In addition to the First NBC Kids Stage, which will feature kids’ friendly musical artists, Hey Now Hooping will be hosting Pop Up Hoop Jams and Epic Bubble Making on Saturday and Sunday! Other entertainment to expect in the Kids Tent include crafting, singing beats, percussion workshops, drum circles, open mic rapping, Divine Dance Depot, Confetti Park Players, Christine Todd’s Music and Movement for Toddlers and Parents, Junior League’s Children’s Farmers Market and Kids in the Kitchen, and song and storytelling with Gray Hawk Perkins.
Bring on the Boats
Bayou Boogaloo is well known for being a festival on Bayou St. John and guests are encouraged to listen to the music from the comfort of their own boat, canoe, kayak or paddleboard, or even home-made barge.
In addition to an annual clean-up along the Bayou, this year there will be an inaugural boat race which will star at 10am and travel 7.5 miles across the Bayou. You can also look out for me on one of the barges—my friends and I build one every year!
Other recreational activities include the annual boat decorating contest, a bicycle pub crawl, and you are always able to rent kayaks by the hour from Bayou Paddlesports and Kayak-iti-Yat. Prices and availability may vary during the festival, so if you have your own, bring it on out!
Just a friendly reminder that New Orleans passed a law a couple years ago about leaving unattended boats on Bayou St. John and the fines associated with it. Please read more about that here.
What to Know about Attending Bayou Boogaloo
If you’re planning to head to the festival, make sure you understand that parking will most likely be on-street and therefore is very limited. Your best options, especially if you plan to drink alcohol, is to bike, walk, take public transportation or call a taxi cab, Uber or Lyft.
With the Lafitte Greenway open this year, biking or walking to Bayou Boogaloo is easier than ever from many parts of New Orleans. The Greenway intersects the end of the Bayou and therefore if you’re anywhere from downtown to Gentilly, you can easily access the festival. There will be bike parking available once you arrive. For more information about that, stay tuned to this page here.
The New Orleans RTA bus route connects you from your home base to Mid-City in many different ways. Click here for all the RTA bus schedules and routes. And, if you are staying by the French Quarter or along Canal Street, you can take the Canal Streetcar to Jefferson Davis Parkway and walk the short few blocks to the festival! That’ll only cost ya $1.25 each way per person.
If you must drive, and park on the street, make sure to obey all traffic and parking laws. Parking fines recently increased so make sure to park with the flow of traffic, more than 20 ft from a fire hydrant, intersection, driveway or stop sign, and avoid no parking zones.
What can you bring or not bring to Bayou Boogaloo?
Bring: your children, pets, a hat, sunscreen, cash, umbrella, poncho and rain boots if necessary.
Leave: weapons of any kind, [all] drugs, outside food or drink [this is a free festival, respect the food vendors], coolers, chests, tents, tarps, valuable jewelry or belongings.
For your safety, although you are encouraged to paddle up to the festival in a boat or other non-motorized vessel, you are highly discouraged from swimming or jumping into Bayou St. John. Never mind the occasional alligator you might see along the banks, but unfortunately there are sharp objects such as submerged cars and other debris lying around the shallow waters. It is not also the cleanest of waters to be swimming around in.
Getting Arrested at Bayou Boogaloo
Despite the family-friendly atmosphere at Bayou Boogaloo, it is a New Orleans music festival and we love to have fun. If you happen to have too much fun, or decided it was a good idea to drink and drive, and get arrested for a DWI in New Orleans, then your first move should be to call an experienced DWI defense lawyer such as Crescent City Law. You can call us at (504) 264-9492 or even e-mail us, Facebook message us or Tweet us and we will get back to you in a timely fashion. We’re available on weekends and evenings, and even off-site. We hope you have a great Bayou Boogaloo!
