May—post-Jazz Fest—is usually a pretty relaxed month for all of the OffBeat staff. Our biggest issue of the year is done, and we reserve the right to kick back a little after all of our hard work.

So this is my opportunity to thank all of our staff—Joseph Irrera, Alex Rawls, Elsa Hahne, Craig Guillot, Ben Berman, Margaret Walker, James Martin, our fantastic writers and photographers, as well as our distribution staff (who work every month, as well as overtime during Jazz Fest) and our loyal cadre of interns who contribute so much to the magazine through their hard work and the fresh ideas they bring to this publication.

This is also an opportunity to send out a word of appreciation to the extended staff of Festival Productions and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation for the Jazz Fest. Yes, we all bitch and complain about how the festival has changed, but I do believe that they listen and try to make as many positive changes as possible within the constraints of putting on a highly successful multi-million dollar event that started as a little celebration of local music and culture 40 years ago. With growth, there are growing pains. Things change.

In many ways, the success of the Jazz Fest has had such an impact on New Orleans’ perception worldwide. It’s always been a city that’s had a lot to offer culturally, but the Jazz Fest has exposed millions of people to music that’s not readily available in the rest of the country, let alone the world. This has done nothing but good things for local musicians—and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a musician in New Orleans whose life has not been changed positively by the Jazz Fest and the extended audience it attracts to New Orleans.

Another important result of the Jazz Fest is that it’s influenced the formation of many other festivals in the city, including the French Quarter Festival and the Voodoo Music Experience, to say nothing of the Gretna Heritage Fest, the Po-Boy Festival, the Creole Tomato Festival, neighborhood events like Bayou Boogaloo and so many more. The fact that the Jazz and Heritage Foundation has instituted smaller music fests like the Louisiana Cajun and Zydeco Fest in June and the Blues & Barbecue Fest in November proves that local music is a driving force in uniting locals and attracting visitors to the city.

New Orleans is definitely the “City of Music” worldwide, and this month the American Marketing Association New Orleans will host a forum with people from other cities (Austin, Seattle, Memphis) who have used their city’s music to market their city. I’ll report on that here, and in the Weekly Beat online (subscribe free at OffBeat.com).

One more short word: our website, which is the oldest magazine website in the state of Louisiana, is in the process of being revamped. We have some really good stuff in store for our readers. So keep logging on to OffBeat.com.

Last word: thank you to local musicians for what you do, and to OffBeat readers and advertisers for your support of local music and culture.