Jazz Fest 2027: dates, tickets and planning the two weekends

What you need to know, in short: Jazz Fest 2027 runs for eight days across two weekends, Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 April and Thursday 29 April to Sunday 2 May 2027, at the Fair Grounds Race Course in Mid-City. The dates are published by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the festival's owner, on its official site. Tickets are sold by the festival itself, through that site; there is no other primary seller. The lineup and the ticket sale have not been published yet. The rooms around those two weekends fill early, so the order of work is the room first, the ticket when the sale opens.

The two weekends

Days	Dates	Note
Weekend one	Thu 22 to Sun 25 Apr 2027	Four days at the Fair Grounds
The gap	Mon 26 to Wed 28 Apr 2027	No festival days: the city itself, and a rest
Weekend two	Thu 29 Apr to Sun 02 May 2027	Four more days; the festival closes on the Sunday

Eight days is a lot of festival, and the shape most visitors settle on is one weekend done properly rather than both done thinly. The three gap days are a feature, not a flaw: they are when the rest of the city, the museums, the river and the swamp, gets its turn, and when the second weekend's crowds have not yet arrived. Our Jazz Fest listing carries the dates, the official source and the check date, and the attractions guide covers the gap days.

What is not known yet

This is the part other guides tend to skip. The Foundation has published the 2027 dates and, at the time this guide was checked, nothing else: no lineup, no ticket sale date, no stage plan. Any page that names headliners for 2027 today is guessing. What you can settle now is everything around the music: the room, the days off, and the rest of the trip. When the lineup and the sale are announced, they will be announced on the festival's official site, and the weekly note tracks confirmations like these as they land. Proceeds from the festival support the Foundation's year-round education, economic development and cultural programmes, which is part of why the city treats these two weekends as its own.

Getting to the Fair Grounds

The Fair Grounds Race Course sits in Mid-City, a streetcar ride from the French Quarter and the CBD hotels most visitors use. That geography is the argument for basing yourself in the centre rather than out by the track: the festival days end where the city's evenings begin. The attractions guide carries the streetcar fares and passes on its Before you go cards, checked against the RTA.

Where to stay

Stay central. The French Quarter and the CBD put the city's restaurants, clubs and late music in walking range after the festival day ends, and both ride easily to Mid-City for the next one. Jazz Fest weekends are among the first in the year to fill, so book the room when you book the trip, not when the lineup lands. The button below opens the hotel search set to Downtown New Orleans; the French Quarter guide covers the other classic base, and the hotels page compares all four areas.

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The days around the festival

The gap days and the evenings are yours. A sternwheeler on the river after a festival day, the swamp on a quiet morning, and the museum that takes the better part of a day: the bookable staples, sold by Klook at the same price you would pay there direct.

Sources: the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, via this site's Jazz Fest record, checked against the festival's official site (nojazzfest.com) on 1 November 2026 for the 2027 dates, the venue and the presenting structure; the record's official-source line is on the event page. Checked 1 November 2026. The lineup and ticket sale are the Foundation's to publish.

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