Thoughts, observations, and opinions from the Fairgrounds about Jazz Fest 2015 from Web Editor Stephen Maloney.

Sometimes Jazz Fest is not for the faint of heart, or the claustrophobic.

Yesterday was definitely one of those days.

By the time Jerry Lee Lewis took the stage, the Killer had a massive crowd spread all the way across the infield in front of the Acura Stage as far as the eye could see.

The crowd pressed back all the way across the outer track to the outer fence, causing the staff to close the Big Chief Experience gate and reroute people toward the Congo Square Stage.

Campers took over the usually chair- and blanket-free dirt track, making it almost impossible to move around.

Apparently, actually listening to music didn’t seem to matter to the hundreds of people who established their territory across from the Crawfish Monica booth.

At that particular spot, thanks in part to the endless stream of people constantly moving past the severely overpopulated sliver of land, sound carrying over from the Congo Square Stage combined with and cancelled out the sound coming from the Acura Stage.

So if you couldn’t actually hear any of the major acts clearly from that spot, why were people literally falling over each other to sit down and spread out their blankets and tarps?

I don’t know if Jerry Lee Lewis knew what he was getting into.

And it only got worse for Elton John.

I honestly don’t know how someone who managed to land some prime real estate in the center of the Acura Stage infield managed to make it through the day.

A trip to the bathroom, food stand, or beer booth would have been closer in arduousness to Homer’s Odyssey than a 200-yard walk across a field.

I couldn’t figure out why there were so many legions of scantily clad teenagers traipsing through the dense crowd with feathers in their floppy hats until I remembered Ed Sheeran’s set on the Gentilly Stage.

On the fringes of the Acura Stage, I heard more than one group of Sheeran fans say “Let’s just stay for ‘Tiny Dancer’ and then leave, OK?’”

With Sheeran pulling masses of people to one side of the Fairgrounds and Elton John amassing a medium sized army of fans on the other, the space between became eerily deserted around 5:15.

As I headed to the Lagniappe Stage to help Woodenhead celebrate 40 years as a band, the food booths, which had been experiencing steady lines 20 to 30 people deep all day, were almost completely abandoned.

“Thank you for missing Elton John, Sir Elton John,” Jimmy Robinson said during a break in Woodenhead’s blistering set.

Robinson went on to introduce “Lady Fran Comiskey,” in keeping with the headliner’s royal pedigree.

As for Sir Elton’s set?

He certainly didn’t disappoint.

Hearing tens of thousands of people singing along to “Benny and the Jets” was a pretty magical moment, even if it came at the cost of everyone’s comfort and personal space.

As probably the only person to ever leave an Elton John show to go see Woodenhead live, I added to the uniqueness of my experience by catching some of rapper T.I.’s set on the way back.

Elton John to Woodenhead to T.I., fighting through tens of thousands of people.

Only at Jazz Fest.