Old Crow, Robert Randolph Headline Hogs for the Cause June 4-5

Robert Randolph

The first New Orleans festival is the first to return, this year to Plaquemines Parish with a side of smoked meats.

Many festivals have staked out space on New Orleans’ calendar, but Hogs for the Cause is the first to present a lineup and actual plans. Organizers announced on Thursday that the barbecue cook-off/roots music festival/fundraiser will return on June 4 and 5 at the 15-acre Plaquemines Parish Government Facility in Belle Chasse. Performers include Old Crow Medicine Show, Robert Randolph and the Family Band with The Soul Rebels and Brandon “Taz” Neiderauer, Andy Frasco & The UN, Sweet Crude, Travers Brotherhood, and The Iceman Special. 

Hogs for the Cause raises money to help the families of children with pediatric brain cancer, and its June date puts the event five months in front of Jazz Fest, French Quarter Fest Buku and Voodoo, which have all announced late September or October dates. In an address to the nation Thursday night, President Joe Biden asked all the states to make all adults eligible for a COVID vaccine by May with the goal of making July 4 celebrations possible. Biden recently said that he expected the U.S. to have enough vaccine for every adult by the end of May, but Dr. Anthony Fauci is less optimistic. “It may take until June, July and August to finally get everybody vaccinated,” he said in an interview. 

For that reason, organizers are planning the festival with Louisiana’s Phase 3 guidelines in mind. They developed safety protocols for the festival in consultation with one of their partners, Children’s Hospital and will cap attendance at 25 percent—well below the 50 percent required. They will also require attendees to wear masks except when eating or drinking—regardless of vaccination status—in accordance with Plaquemines Parish regulations. Guests will be subject to temperature checks and other COVID-related safety processes that we have now become accustomed to. Hogs will be cashless, with attendees using an RIFD chip in the wristbands that will serve as tickets to make purchases while there. Social distancing will be encouraged.

The venue change looks like news, but Louapre says that there’s less to the decision than some might think. Hogs for the Cause moved to Plaquemines Parish because the Lakefront Arena parking lot that is the current home of the festival is being used to administer COVID-19 testing. “We had some positive, preliminary conversations with the city a few months ago,” Louapre says. “But really, we did not want our festival to interfere with the Rapid Testing Site at UNO.” 

Like all the other festivals, Hogs for the Cause had to cancel in 2020, and while they didn’t know exactly when they’d get back in business, they never stopped running plans and possibilities either. “We had lots of different options, date holds, locations, and it really just came down to being patient,” Louapre says. One thing they knew was that they didn’t want to wait until the fall. “There are so many event scheduled, and we want to go to them as fans. We identified early June as a potential window of opportunity and worked from there.”

Because they had loose working plans in place, they were able to get back in business with startling speed. 

“Last week when the state moved forward into Phase 3 was probably the first day we said, Okay, let’s do it,” Louapre says. “Before then, we just wanted to try and explore every possible permutation and combination of what Hogs could look like, where it would be, and how we would do it.”

One thing the last year has shown repeatedly is that people have wanted to return to a more normal life, even when it was ill-advised. When polled, majorities of fans and even professionals in the live music industry have said that they would attend or work concerts in summer 2020, even before vaccines had been announced. Las Vegas’ Electric Daisy Carnival sold out in less than 12 hours when tickets went on sale last August, even before a single act had been announced. So it’s no surprise that the competing teams of cookers were ready for Hogs as well. 

According to Louapre, “Some teams cant make it for one reason or another, but we have 90 percent of our teams who were signed up last year returning this year. Everyone gets it.”

They were able to move fairly quickly on an initial lineup because many of the scheduled artists had been originally slated for 2020. “The headliners of the 2020 festival were gracious enough to rollover their contracts to the following year and are comfortable in once agin returning to the stage,” says co-founder Becker Hall books the bands for Hogs.

At the moment, Hogs for the Cause is the only date on Robert Randolph’s calendar, but that will almost certainly change. Industry professionals expect bands to start touring this summer, so New Orleans likely won’t remain his only date. Old Crow Medicine Show has already booked a number of gigs including one in late May before Hogs, and a handful in the Northeast in July. 

For organizers, announcing that Hogs for the Cause will take place this year with a venue, talent and competitors is a big first step, but it’s only a first step. According to Louapre, a lot can happen between now and June 4. 

“It’s a festival,” he says. “We have moments when we wonder if this will actually work a thousand times in the run up. We have miles to go before we get to that point!”