New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival  Member Rating 2 out of 5
by lisanti on May 7, 2001  Having never been to Jazz Fest, I
thought it would be a nice, relaxing spring day (JF is held in
late April/early May) at the New Orleans Fairgrounds sitting on
a blanket, listening to some good music (Dave Matthews,
Mystikal, Cowboy Mouth, etc.) and hanging out with my friends. I
thought that getting there around 2:30 was plenty of time to
look around and still make it to see Cowboy Mouth at 4. My
friends that were with me, most of whom had been to Jazz Fest,
thought this was a good idea also.  Instead, we encountered a
record-setting crowd of 160,000 people (previous record of
98,000), we couldn't even get near any stage, people were pushy
and rude. Almost immediately, we started over to the (main)
Acura stage, and before we could even hear the band on the stage
(much less see the stage), we ran into a wall of people and
people camped out EVERYWHERE. Blankets, chairs, beer, and half-
naked, sunburned people covered the