Welcome to the wonderful New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and to this issue of OffBeat, our first-ever, stand-alone Jazz Fest Bible. You might have read our Jazz Fest Bible before, we’ve done it forever, but it always counted as our regular May issue with extra Jazz Fest content, and that is no more. We’re now doing 13 issues a year.

Many of our advertisers and readers asked us to concentrate this issue on the Fest, and we have. Our music club and events listings are solely focused on the city’s most music-intense time of the year. You’ll see another OffBeat issue the first week of May that will be the official program for the city’s up-and-coming music festival, Bayou Boogaloo, Mid-City’s celebration of music, food and culture on May 15-17 on the shores of the bayou.

If you enjoy this issue of OffBeat, we’d welcome the opportunity to send you a copy each month when you subscribe. It’s absolutely the best way to keep up with what’s going on here for people who want to know about the authentic New Orleans experience. It’s all explained on our website. Go to www.offbeat.com/product-category/subscriptions/ or scan the code on this page for quicker access.

OffBeat needs your support and readership in this age of digitized editorial content. Yes, we have great digital content too, but our reputation for in-depth coverage of the local music and culture scene is still rooted in print.

There are new recording studios showing up in this issue. One of them is The Parlor, an idea that’s taken years to create. Its owners and operators are beginning a major move into New Orleans to consolidate recording, artist development and management, as well as event promotion and production. New Orleans is growing rapidly, with a whole new group of young people who see the city as the best place to be, and music, entertainment and restaurants are thriving—we know this because they tell us so. We see it as OffBeat’s job to try to educate and enthrall newcomers with the unbelievably rich culture of the city, something that not only needs to be nurtured and supported, but challenged and renewed.

This is also the time of year where I publicly thank the people who make OffBeat possible. It takes a lot of folks to keep this business alive: writers, photographers, editors, graphic designers, advertising and marketing people, distribution staff, promotional people and volunteers who support what we do. And then, of course, there are our advertisers—who understand the importance of New Orleans music, culture and cuisine and partner with us monthly to keep what we do viable. Our subscribers are an integral part of the OffBeat “family.” We hope you’ll join us.