Puddle Silliness

JazzFesters offer some hilarity—a welcome respite from current events

I had a Substack article written for today based on the latest news, and I decided we’ve all had enough of that s***.

So, today a little fun stuff from our trip to New Orleans two weeks ago for the Jazz and Heritage Music Festival. We were in the blues tent listening to an awesome blues singer when we noticed that the morning rain had created a puddle across the walkway. It was perhaps an inch deep at its deepest point and at most two-and-a-half feet across. We also noticed that some people were going to pretty extensive lengths to avoid stepping into it.

I decided to start videotaping people’s legs as they hopped, jumped, stretched, and pretty much turned themselves inside out to get over the water. A few people, who had wisely worn mudboots, just tromped through, but most…. well, see for yourself.

The woman who scoots on the bench at the end was even more hilarious going through initially, making her husband go across and hold her hand as she balanced on the barricade to get over the water. (You can hear my husband say, “It’s only water.”) She inspired the videotaping in the first place.

Here are some of the sights at JazzFest, which we never miss. It’s four days of ongoing music on seven stages and three big tents—not just jazz, but blues, gospel, bluegrass, rock and roll, cajun, and zydeco, with unbelievably good food and vendors selling everything from baskets to hats to clothing to jewelry, mostly by indigenous people from Louisiana.

New Orleans JazzFest

Hope this moment of levity and spectacle distracted you for a brief period.

—Marcia