New Orleans events in summer 2025: ESSENCE, NOWFE, Tales of the Cocktail and more Gambit previews the New Orleans events coming up in summer 2025.

On Sunday’s episode of 60 MINUTES, correspondent Jon Wertheim visited southwest Louisiana, where the sounds of Cajun and Zydeco music – long the soundtrack in this singular pocket of America – are experiencing a revival.

School of Rock Northshore is celebrating with Metairie/New Orleans School of Rock that two of their students have made the cut! Kaleigh Bourque and Jude Hughes will be on the School of Rock AllStar Tour. Kaleigh will be on the Midwest team and Jude on the West Coast team. Both are two-time AllStars! We are very proud of each of them for this accomplishment.

Where Y'At Magazine interviews local owner CR Gruver of School of Rock Metairie and Northshore about the School of Rock and the benefits of playing an instrument.

Featuring tributes to Black Sabbath, Grunge, Led Zeppelin, Legends of Pop and the Best of the 2000's. Also performing are our young rockers in the Rock 101 program.

Offbeat Magazine honors Irma Thomas as our “Forever Soul Queen” on this year’s Jazz Fest Bible™ cover. I thought long and hard about who would grace it, and I couldn’t think of a better subject than our musical queen and icon, Irma Thomas Jackson—even though Irma has graced our Jazz Fest issue several times (2003 and 2011). Irma is the epitome of talent, grace, intelligence and standing up for herself as a musician.

Friends of the Cabildo will host a special screening of rare 16mm film footage from the first-ever New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Wednesday, April 23. The event, part of the ongoing FOC Film Series, will take place in the third-floor performance space of the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

New Orleans blues fans have something to look forward to this Jazz Fest season: Love Letters: Samantha Fish Live from New Orleans will return to the local airwaves for its fourth consecutive year. The half-hour documentary is slated to air on WYES-TV Channel 12 on Saturday, April 26 at 10:30 p.m. and again on Monday, April 28 at 9:30 p.m., coinciding with the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Although The Abita Stumps are a family band, they’re less Partridge Family and more Muscle Shoals meets the Tchefuncte. The Northshore-based group began as a post-Katrina jam session between old friends and neighbors and has since evolved into a full-fledged swampy-tonk ensemble—thanks in large part to the second generation: four jazz-trained brothers who happen to be the sons of the band’s leader, guitarist Dalton Lambert.