Jazz Fest 2006

For the uninitiated, Jazz Fest is about much more than Jazz. It is about blues and crawfish, about gospel and etoufee, about mingling in a crowd of thousands of laid-back, music-loving eclectics, baking in the sun all day so you can catch Dr. John on one stage, Jack Jones on another and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on another.

I love it. I have been just four times over the last dozen years but I still consider myself a devotee. I've stayed in French Quarter hotels with quiet courtyards and fruity, made-from-scratch hurricanes. And I have stayed on Canal Street in the big chain hotels, where you can catch acts as diverse as Sun Pie and Randy Jackson. I much prefer the Quarter hotels, but they're hard to book and just as expensive.

When you aren't at the Fairgrounds, trudging from one stage to another, and one wonderful food stand to the next, . . . (more to come on this work in progress).