Big Freedia is hosting a weekly cookout in City Park’s botanical gardens as a way to bring people together in a post-COVID world.

Last February, Big Freedia was preparing for the release of her upcoming release, Louder, and even made a walk-on appearance on WWL-TV to help meteorologist Dave Nussbaum do the weather. While doing so, she promoted her first release from the EP, “Chasing Rainbows,” her most personal release yet and her first duet with singer Kesha.

Unfortunately, Louder dropped on March 13 just as Coronavirus forced live music venues to shut down. The EP shows Big Freedia’s continued development as a songwriter and includes guest spots from The Soul Rebels and the Swedish electropop duo Icona Pop, but without the ability to tour, she had to find new ways to get her music out and remain in the public eye.

Her newest plan is host a weekly cookout in front of a live audience on Thursdays in City Park’s Botanical Garden. Big Freedia has made her cooking part of her public profile, and she has live-streamed online cooking shows on Facebook and Instagram during the shutdown. “They were really successful so we wanted to do something with a live studio audience and because of COVID, we thought outdoors was best,” Freedia says. “City Park was already doing outdoor dining shows, so we asked if they wanted me to cook with them.”

“Garden Cookout with Big Freedia” will be a socially distanced event, with limited seating and a face mask requirement. Face masks are allowed to come off once seated and eating, but in communal spaces they are required. The menu is being put together by Big Freedia and the City Park Botanical Garden staff, with fresh vegetables being used from the gardens. 

Tickets are $75, and the price includes a three-course meal, a cocktail, and a photo with Big Freedia. Ten dollars from each ticket will go the the upkeep of City Park’s Botanical Garden. 

The event is not only a source of revenue, however. Part of Big Freedia’s project—like bounce itself—has been to bring people together. If she couldn’t do it through music, she wanted to do it through food. New Orleans’ reliance on food as a point of community makes a cookout at a time of extreme isolation something sacred. There is something healing about a meal cooked and eaten together, she says

“We’ve all had our lives turned upside down. Financially, emotionally—we are all drained. I’m really excited to just get back out there and bring some levity and light to people!” 

The focus of “Garden Cookout with Big Freedia” is the meal and its preparation, but the Queen Diva is still at the center of the event. “Big Freedia music will be playing,” she says. “And no one stop me if I break out in a twerk,”