RECORD CROWDS AT VOODOO EXPERIENCE PROVE NEW ORLEANS CONTINUING TO RECOVER AND HEAL

With possibly the best festival lineup of the year, Voodoo Music Festival proves the spirit of New Orleans can never be beaten as it continues to heal

With possibly the most diverse and best festival lineup of the year, Voodoo Music Experience proved the spirit of New Orleans can never be beaten as it continues to heal and make progress forward from the Katrina tragedy of 2005. This years Voodoo Music Experience brought in a record number 150,000 fans who came to watch over 120 bands perform in New Orleans, Louisiana October 26th-28th. This record-setting number for the ninth installment of New Orleans’ signature fall music event follows a historic comeback in 2006 and it easily sets the stage for the Voodoo Music Experience’s celebratory 10th anniversary scheduled for October 24th-26th of 2008.

This year’s Voodoo fest featured electric sets from Rage Against the Machine, Kings Of Leon, Plain White T’s, Coheed and Cambria, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Toots & the Maytals, The Smashing Pumpkins, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Sinead O’Connor, Ti?sto, Wilco, Dr. John, Fall Out Boy, the Black Crowes, Ghostland Observatory, Galactic, Spoon and Common. The musically rich and culturally broad spirit of New Orleans was once again celebrated as fans and citizens alike continue to revitalize the city.

“We did a festival, Byron Bay Festival in Australia and it reminds me a little of that just by looking at the bill you know. A nice mix of modern artists but a lot of old legends that have these anthems you know. Toots comes on and sings ‘Pressure Drop’ or ’54-46 Was My Number’ and the festivals a festival for me, you know what I mean. That’s on the rise again, New Orleans. You can’t dwell on it, you just have to move on. That’s what it’s doing. It’s rebuilding there.”

We caught up with up and coming singer songwriter Paolo Nutini, to get his thoughts on performing at Voodoo Music Festival and the city of New Orleans being on the rise again.

“From friends and you know our guitarist still lives in New Orleans and he says things are coming around. The main thing that we can stress about New Orleans is invite people to come and stay there and spend money there and go to the restaurants and enjoy the city and help be part of the action to build it back up and make it a better place than it was before.”

We also caught up with Mute Math, who originally hail from New Orleans to get their thoughts on what people can do to help the city of New Orleans bounce back, which they clearly are on the road to now.

Just a few of many musical highlights throughout the weekend was Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha telling the crowd that the U.S. government was at war with New Orleans and that it was them who “Represent all the beauty that still exists in this city. Wake up and fight them.” During the Smashing Pumpkins set, beyond a nod to New Orleans with a rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Born on the Bayou,” but Billy Corgan also performed a solo acoustic version of the band’s “1979” dedicating it to the people of New Orleans and announcing “I’m glad to see the city is not what the media portrays it to be. I expected to find a living funeral, but in fact the city is very much alive. No hurricane can kill this place.” Stay tuned for details about next year’s 10th anniversary celebration of Voodoo Music Experience, which will one again take place in New Orleans October 24th-26th, 2008.