New Orleans was a fantastic experience. A unique city with sights, sounds and flavours you couldn’t imagine in any other place on earth. Add to that the annual extravaganza that is the world’s largest gathering of the folk music community, with over 2000 attendees, almost half of whom are performing artists, giving around 4,000 individual performances over the four days, and you get an idea of just how overwhelming it can be!
Keeping track of the days, let alone the acts, shows and conversations of the event is a very difficult task. Meeting old friends, making new ones, touring showcase performances taking place in over 100 rooms over ten floors of a hotel between the hours of 4pm and 3am is great fun, but also takes some stamina! We left the annual closing party square dance, which took place in the The Blackpot & Lafayette Lousiana room, at just after 4am on the final night/morning, and the party was still in full swing with a band that included Rachel Baiman, who plays here at TLR on 31st May!
Despite the chaos and fatigue, we managed to make enough notes to gather a list of artists that we’ll be working hard to bring along to Saltaire for your enjoyment
We also spent a few days in Austin, where the pace and culture was very different. We caught up with old friend and fellow FAI attendee, Laura Thomas of Comboplate Booking, who we first met back in 2003 in Wales when she brought AJ Roach to the Talbot.
It really was a wonderful 12 days and we don’t think we could have packed any more in if we tried. We hope you enjoy the selected photos here and we’ll keep you posted as we hook in our targets!
