Festival season is upon us.

First, there’s French Quarter Fest, the most glorious of New Orleans’ spring festivals—the best little festival that you may never have heard of. French Quarter Festival was initiated in 1984 as a way to get locals back to the Quarter, whose sidewalks and streets had been torn up and redone in preparation for the 1984 World’s Fair.

The idea seems to have worked splendidly. Since its inception FQF has grown to a huge event that attracts not only locals back to the Quarter, but visitors from around the world. In 2005 pre-Katrina, FQF had more attendees than Jazz Fest!

French Quarter Fest is vaunted as a locals-only music event. All musicians who play are from Louisiana, with the exception of a few traditional jazz groups who travel to New Orleans to play the event every year. The genres of music include everything from brass bands, trad and contemporary jazz, Cajun and zydeco, rock, R&B, Latin, funk, folk and everything else that makes New Orleans such a musical town. There are stages set up from the Old U.S. Mint down Royal and Bourbon Streets, to Jackson Square, to several set along the river at Woldenberg Park. The great food of the city is showcased too, with the largest “jazz brunch” in the world.

And, best of all, the admission is free. So you can enjoy our music, quaff some cold beer or cocktails, stroll throughout the Quarter or the riverfront, eat some delicious New Orleans cuisine and sight see in the most European of cities’ oldest district, full of quirky little shops and antique stores, 24-hour clubs and bars, and distinct restaurants.

When the weather is good—and it usually is, in New Orleans right about now—you just can’t ask for more. I love French Quarter Fest (April 13-15). If you’ve never been, please check it out. You really won’t be sorry.

French Quarter Fest is going to host a wedding this year in Jackson Square: New Orleans’ favorite trumpeter, bon vivant and barbecue master Kermit Ruffins will marry his longtime sweetheart Karen Carter at this year’s festival. We love you, Kermit; all the best to you and Karen.

That’s not to say I don’t always look forward to the “big boy” of New Orleans Festivals: the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. For those of you who are reading this from out of town or on-line, the event is always scheduled for the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May (I get asked that question a lot, still after all these years!).

Jazz Fest is the ultimate music fest. It’s the piece de resistance of New Orleans festivals because it’s become the annual gathering place for the world village of people who love New Orleans music and culture. It showcases hundreds of musicians to people from all over the country, and single-handedly has exposed more people to Louisiana music and culture than any other event, ever. It employs hundreds of production people locally and from outside this area and has a profound impact on New Orleans’ economy and cultural exports.

We’re grateful that both French Quarter Fest and the Jazz Fest managed to survive post-Katrina, and came back better than ever.

Upcoming in June (usually a pretty dead month) are the New Orleans Seafood Festival and the French Market Creole Tomato Festival, both being held June 9 and 10. The Seafood Fest is planned as an event to focus on French Quarter restaurants and establishments. Most of the events, including cooking demonstrations and a music stage, will be in Jackson Square. The Tomato Fest consists of events in the French Market area. By the way, those of us Quarter rats are looking forward to the reopening of the flea market that’s being refurbished as I write this.

We just returned from South by Southwest (SXSW), Austin’s major music-film-interactive media event. You gotta love it: thousands of musicians from all over the world being showcased at scores of Austin clubs. The event is a major schmoozarama: if you’re in “the biz” and you can’t connect with someone at SXSW, well you ain’t tryin’ too hard. Louisiana hosted a big booth at the trade show this year, along with New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, which is finally coming forth as a major player and mover and shaker in the New Orleans music economy. Scott Aiges, late of New Orleans’ Music Office, is now heading up the programs division of the Foundation, and his assertiveness in using the Foundation’s connections and money is already making its mark.

This April will mark the formal announcement of the umbrella organization, Sweet Home New Orleans, a collaboration of the non-profit organizations designed to facilitate the return of displaced New Orleans musicians, Mardi Gras Indians, and Social Aid & Pleasure Club members. Sweet Home will have a presence at French Quarter Fest, and for more immediate information go to sweethomeneworleans.org.

Yes, there is discernible progress in improving the lot of local musicians and artists in New Orleans. It’s just going too damned slow. We still need lots of affordable housing. We need gigs. We need the city to stop closing down music clubs (King Bolden’s on North Rampart was closed recently for not having a permit). The music community needs recognition from the “established” business community.

But most of all, we need money, better education, corporate from outside Louisiana who are believers in New Orleans as a never-ending well of creative juice. And of course, we need leaders who see the potential of the city and who will give up using politics, corruption, racial divisiveness and power lust for their own egos, instead of for the good of the city. A pipe dream, I know, but I always was a “cockeyed optimist.”