NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is usually akin to a 14-ring musical circus — a variety of musical acts playing simultaneously on stages spread throughout the sprawling infield and grandstand of a historic horse racing track.
That changed Thursday afternoon, when 13 stages went silent as The Rolling Stones made their first appearance at the 54-year-old festival.
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“We didn’t want to have 13 empty stages and no people in front of them when the Stones start singing favorites like ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ and ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash,’ ” festival producer Quint Davis told The Associated Press ahead of the festival. “Everyone who bought a ticket for that day primarily bought one to see The Stones.”
Jazz Fest is the second stop for the Stones on their Hackney Diamonds tour, launched in support of the well-received album they released last year, their first album of original material in 18 years. They had been scheduled to appear at the 50th Jazz Fest in 2019 but had to cancel because of Mick Jagger's heart surgery. A subsequent planned appearance was scrubbed in 2021 when the festival was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The band opened its performance at Jazz Fest with its high-energy “Start Me Up,” drawing a loud roar from the crowd, which touched the front of the stage and spread to the track at the back of the field.
“We're so pleased to be in New Orleans, and we're so pleased to be playing here, at Jazz Fest,” Jagger told the crowd, who roared again in response.
The band also gave fans “Out of Time" before bringing on Zydeco accordionist Dwayne Dopsie, who played with them on “Let It Bleed.”
They then brought New Orleans' Queen of Soul Irma Thomas to the stage to sing a duet of “Time Is On My Side,” to the delight of the crowd.
Thomas’ earlier 1964 version of the song inspired a cover later that year by The Stones, garnering them their first top 10 hit in the U.S.
Midway through the set, Jessie Cameron, 53, of New Orleans, said she thought they were doing a great job entertaining the crowd.
“I'm a huge fan and have been since I was 10 years old. My mom loved him, and my first crush was Mick Jagger.” said Cameron, who works with autistic children.
When the gates opened under an overcast sky and slight breeze, hundreds of fans poured onto the festival grounds, most wearing T-Shirts with the Rolling Stones' signature “lips with tongue out” logo or one emblazoned with just the band's name.
“I was torn between seeing them before they die or seeing them before I do,” Nathan “Bam” Schulman, 75, an acupuncturist from Eugene, Oregon, said laughing.
Schulman said he had seen the Stones perform years ago in Oakland, California, but looked forward to Thursday's performance.
“They're such an inspiration,” he said. “I look back at them and remember a time of adventure, a time of being whoever you want to be, a time of being myself and when we'd say ‘Screw the establishment.’ They inspire me to keep on living.”
Vickie Clay, 38, who works in the auto industry in New Orleans, said seeing the Stones in person “was on her bucket list.”
“It will be my first time seeing them," she said. "I hope Mick Jagger does his ‘chicken dance’ moves, but whatever he does will be worth every penny.”
Kerry Dantzig, 54, of San Francisco, said she regularly attends Jazz Fest “for the food, for the music and to meet up with old friends.”
“I'm hoping Mick and the Stones sound good,” said a smiling Dantzig, who works in the insurance industry. “I mean, they're 80 years old, you know? Still, I can't wait to see Mick Jagger shaking his caboose.”
Henri Lellouche, 63, a retired advertising executive from Fairfield, Connecticut, said he has seen the band perform previously and added that it was a good idea to combine them with Jazz Fest.
“I haven't heard a lot of their new stuff. But I love the older music, the blues tinge, and I love watching them perform. I mean it's hard to believe they're the same age as Joe Biden,” he said.
Thursday's weather forecast for the festival held true. Light drops of rain fell about an hour into the set. But that didn't stop the performance.
“You Can't Always Get What You Want,” prompted those in the crowd to sing along and dance amid the drizzles. Dr. Heidi Lovett, 53, an HIV/AIDS researcher in New Orleans, said she was waiting to hear that one.
“I like that they're a cross-generational band and that they're nine years older than I am,” she said of the Stones, smiling. “That song, though, is a replica of what life really is.”
The band also gave fans performances of their hits “Honky Tonk Women,” “Miss You,” “Gimme Shelter,” “Jumpin' Jack Flash" and, after a brief respite, came back on stage to sing “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” and closed with “(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction,” their first No. 1 hit in the U.S.