Jazz Fest 2025 Looks Like Jazz Fest's Recent Past and Future

Lil Wayne

Jazz Fest lineup drops lack drama these days, but they appear to be the new normal.

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell 2025 looks like the last few Jazz Fests.

Starting in 2005, promoters Festival Productions followed the advice of new partners AEG Live and tried to spend their way out of the attendance decline they had been in. The goal was to put national headliners on what are now the Gentilly, Festival, and Congo Square stages, as opposed to one or two of the three as had been the case in more cost-efficient years.

That strategy clearly drove decisions through 2019 when the talent drops could be dramatic, but lineups don’t look as spendy since the COVID interruption. There are still meaningful names on all three of those stages, but the visiting talent had frequently been booked in the penultimate time slots on those stages too, and those are now gone in favor of local talent.

The bookings also lean less heavily on the stars of the ‘60s and ’70s, many of whom had played Jazz Fest so often that they had lost their luster. Rock ’n’ roll’s greatest generation is still recognized at Jazz Fest, but those artists are joined and more equally balanced by artists from the ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s. That’s a change of emphasis that will leave some non-plussed, but there’s no fighting time. As writer John Swenson pointed out, most of the New Orleans stars who gave the festival its personality including Earl King, Eddie Bo, Snooks Eaglin, Ernie K-Doe, and Allen Toussaint have all passed and no one’s dialing back that clock.

As a result, lineups don’t look as legendary as they once did, but the solid attendance since 2022 shows says they work as well if not better than many of the more expensive lineups. Bottom line: individual mileage varies, but both weekends look fine.

The top lines of the first weekend talent lineup include Dave Matthews Band, Lil Wayne & The Roots, Kacey Musgraves, John Fogerty, Burna Boy, HAIM, Harry Connick Jr., Goose, Gladys Knight, Cheap Trick, Babyface, Diana Krall, Irma Thomas, The Revivalists, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and PJ Morton; and in that list, I’m interested in the Lil Wayne collab with The Roots, Kacey Musgraves, Burna Boy, HAIM, Cheap Trick, and Irma Thomas, who I expect will be performing with Galactic in support of their upcoming album together, Audience With The Queen. But I can imagine everybody in that list having a constituency that will be excited to hear them.

Similarly, the second weekend will feature among others Pearl Jam, Luke Combs, Lenny Kravitz, Santana, Cage The Elephant, Laufey, Bryson Tiller, Patti LaBelle, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, My Morning Jacket, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Banda MS, Kamasi Washington, and The Wailers featuring Julian Marley. I’m not sure what brought Combs back so quickly after his appearance in 2022 and Santana was last at Jazz Fest in 2023, but he’s looped in as part of the Mexico showcase that will populate the Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion. I can’t imagine we’ll see Santana there, but his booking is part of the Mexican initiative.

In that lot, only Joan Jett and Kamasi Washington are musts for me, but it’s easy to imagine others with very different lists of must-sees. Again, none of the choices seem nutty, though none of them see epic either.

The thing that has been most encouraging since 2022 and it’s certainly true in 2025 is that Jazz Fest doesn’t appear to be fighting off the modern world. During the Spend More years, the festival’s signature bookings tended to come from the ’60s or ‘70s or clearly drew inspiration from them, as if they represented the good, real music. Much of the music made after that received the de facto side eye. As baby boomers’ aching knees, backs and hips made it harder for them to spend weekends at the Fair Grounds, Jazz Fest had to make peace with the last few decades. Fortunately, they’ve done a pretty good job of that. The artists booked have clear roots, but they’re not stuck in the past. This year’s lineup looks like the new normal, and it’s fine.

Who else will I try to see in the first weekend? To start with, El Dusty. I first wrote about the Corpus Christi DJ/producer in 2015 after he made a name for himself by pulling samples from cumbias in his mother’s record collection and using them to remix hip-hop and dance tracks, my favorite at the time being his Lil Jon remix, “Turn Down for What.” Since then, he has explored his Spanish language roots in greater depth while updating them with greater ferocity. In 2020 I thought his Americano Beat Tape Vol. 1 sounded as political as any music in the U.S. as it aggressively asserted a place for Latino soul, R&B, hip-hop and reggae in the current musical landscape.

El Dusty is part of this year’s focus on Mexico, and I’ll have more on that closer to the festival after I’ve had time to do a deeper dive into those artists. One reason that pavilion usually figures prominently in my Jazz Fest thinking is that one of my guiding principles at the festival is to catch the artists I might not get a second chance to see. I have local priorities like Big Freedia, Tank and the Bangas, The Soul Rebels and Boyfriend because they all tend to make their Jazz Fest shows something special, but if one of them is up against the excellent Touareg band Etran de L’Air from Niger, Etran de L’Air will win for me because I’ll get more chances to see all of the locals.

For me, the strength of Jazz Fest can usually be found in mass of names under the headliners. Right now, you see a bunch of stars at the top of the lineup announcement and they look awesome, but once divvied out in daily schedules, you will see that many cancel each other out as they’ll play at the same time. The quality of the artists you see before them has a major impact on how you feel about the day. El Dusty was buried in the thicket of names, and in addition to him, my priorities in the first weekend are Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Chapel Hart, Judith Owen Big Band, Los Texmaniacs, Bill Frisell with Brian Blade & Thomas Morgan, Flagboy Giz & The Wild Tchoupitoulas, Zar Electrik of the Maghreb, People Museum, Los Güiros, The Revelers, Denisia, LeTrainiump, RAM of Haiti, Cedric Watson et Bijou Creole, Charlie & the Tropicales ft. Mireya Ramos, Jazz Fest Celebrates Mexico: Mixanteña de Santa Cecilia, Son de Madera, Marimba Nandayapa, Son del Coamil, Matlachines Los Venados, Mariachi Jalisco with Ballet Folklorico Vive Mi Tierra, Mariachi en Nueva Orleans Los Viajeros, JM y Sus Norteños, Shannon McNally, Luke Winslow-King featuring Roberto Luti, Tom McDermott & Aurora Nealand, Silver Synthetic, and Kid Charleroi.

In the second weekend, two more Mexican acts jump out. The punk cumbia band Son Rompe Pera were awesome when they played Jazz Fest in 2022, and I like Mexico City’s Mexican Institute of Sound and the way they present a DJ-friendly version of their roots. I first heard them when they remixed Beck’s “Wow,” and last year’s Algo​-​Ritmo : Mexican Institute of Sound Hits 2004​-​2024 is a great place to start.

I’ll also try to make plans around Ledisi Sings Nina, Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives,  Morris Day & The Time, Margo Price, Rickie Lee Jones, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Alejandro Escovedo, HaSizzle “The King of Bounce”, Thandiswa Mazwai of South Africa, Leyla McCalla, Wesli of Canada/Haiti, BIM “Benin International Musical”, Sierra Green & the Giants, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Jourdan Thibodeaux et Les Rôdailleurs, Quique Escamilla of Canada/Mexico, Calpulli Tonalequeh Aztec Dancers, Yusa Cuban Soul, Loose Cattle, Ordinary Elephant, 007 - 25th Anniversary Reunion, Alexis & the Sanity, Trumpet Mafia, and Odd the Artist with Kari Jay.

I say all that now knowing full well that the “cubes”—they’re not actually cubes—change everything. Then, the lineup becomes actual choices and less of a wish list. I’ll end up seeing a lot of artists I love and missing some of these, but for one reason or another, I’m happy to see these artists on the lineup. I’ve left all of the Mexican artists in, but I’ll cut some once I know what they actually do.

My only quibble on first look is that New Orleans’ hip-hop looks a little light this year. I might have missed somebody, but I think I only see Big Freedia, Ha-Sizzle and rap-adjacent artists Odd the Artist and Denisia, both of whom come from that community but aren’t know primarily as rappers. I’m happy to see all of them, but that feels a little light.

Maybe that’s the ballpark of what we get though. Last year there were four hip-hop sets: Big Freedia, Ha-Sizzle, Hotboy Ronald with Alfred Banks, and Juvenile with Mannie Fresh headlining one set at Congo Square. In 2023, there were six, but one was Big Freedia on the Festival Stage and two were headliners: Ludacris, and Wu-Tang Clan with the Soul Rebels. Basically, it looks like there are three slots for hip-hop at Congo Square, more if there’s a rap headliner. I’m glad to see Odd the Artist and Denisia get time this year, but it feels like there’s talent enough for more.

The other news this year is tickets, as it always is. Neither Thursday has a Rolling Stones on it this year, so both are Locals Thursday with $50 tickets. This year, Jazz Fest is also selling a Louisiana Residents GA Weekend 4-Day Pass at the Early Bird price of $290 through January 31 and $305 after that while supplies last. That breaks down to $72.50 a day at Early Bird prices and $76.25 after that. Since single-day tickets will likely be more $100 in advance and certainly will be at the gate, that represents a real savings. To quality for the Louisiana residents package, buyers must have a Louisiana billing address tied to their credit card.

For non-Louisiana ticket buyers, 4-day weekend passes are on sale for $329 through January 31, $349 through February 14, and $369 while supplies last. That breaks down to $82.25, $87.25, and 92.25 per day.

Ticket prices are always a sticking point for people who fondly remember cheaper tickets of bygone days, but in the festival marketplace, they’re reasonable. In 2024, a 3-day pass for Austin City Limits cost at least $350, and a 4-day package for Bonnaroo this year starts at $435—more than $100 a day in advance in each case. Try to see any two of the headliners somewhere else and you will pay more than $100. Demand for the Pearl Jam tour that will bring them to New Orleans is such that cheap tickets to see them in an arena in the U.S. will cost at least $500 and in many cities, closer to $1000.

Jazz Fest catches a lot of heat for ticket prices, but the Louisiana residents’ pass represents a genuine effort to make the festival more affordable to locals.