The Crawfish Family! Heavy D's Mom, Heavy D, Little J and their twin boys (George/VA in background)

I met one of our new NOLA kats – Dane (aka Lil Kat). She and JuJu were proudly sporting their 'Part of the Local Problem" buttons. Sha, Big Dave, George, StlBarb and the ChaCha's were there, and others as well. I ordered a bloody mary, took one sip, then gave it to George to finish off for me. Too spicey for me first thing in the morning. Lots of lagniappes were exchanged. Kinderkitti had made PDKK bracelets which became one of my favorite gifts. She also gave me a cute pair of kitty sunglasses. I got one of StlBarb's "I'm not a Tramp - I'm Just Popular" buttons too. Juju was handing out the best button I saw for the whole fest - a picture of Fess and the slogan "Fuck Acura, Fess Drove a Caddy". She also gave me one of her beautiful fest crop circle buttons. Three of the most wonderful lagniappes this year were hand-made. Mike/Albq made some painted clay kat face pins, Purple Trish hand hand-painted some adorable wooden peppers with flying kats on them, and Whirlwind Wendy had gifted me with an adorable painted clip-on leather gator. I felt showered by langiappes, what a generous krewe we have!

Part of the Local Problem - Dane & Juju

Lil Kat (Dane) and George/VA Bethesda Boy, Blukat and Juju in the background

Bethesda Boy and Mike the Artist

Kinderkitti giving one of her bracelets to George

It was time to walk into the Fairgrounds. The first Friday magic was there – everything was bright and clean and the sun was shining. I separated from the rest of the group, wanting to savor the morning on my own with a leisurely stroll around the fairgrounds. I ran into lots of old friends, and got to meet a new one – Rope from the Fest Board. I stopped to buy a pair of sunglasses, since I'd somehow lost mine already after just 3 days in NOLA. I went to the RayBan booth and turned myself over to the Ray-Ban girls, letting them pick out some frames for me - and wound up loving them. Next I stopped by the Dupree's tarp to say hello and scope out the location for when I'd meet Juju there later for Al Green. I hate to go to someone's tarp empty handed, so I brought them a large order of strawberries dipped in chocolate for breakfast. Brian "Breeze" Cayolle was playing and I enjoyed the music quite a bit. He's a pretty damn good sax player.

Then it was time to grab an iced coffee and crawfish streudel on the way to the Gospel Tent to see Lucy (aka Polekat) perform with The Women's Blend Gospel Choir. It was a gorgeous sight – there must have been 50-60 women on stage, all in bright Hawaiian shirts. Tons of kats showed up, and they pointed Lucy out to us. Juju and I went down front to take pictures and make faces at Lucy who cracked up and posed for the pictures for us. All of the kats made quite a stir, greeting and taking photos in the back of the tent, I was afraid they'd throw us all out.


The Womens Blend chorus at Gospel Stage

Joe & Marisol, Freida Frost, Lil Kat, Sha & Big Dave, Wayne, Zybon were all there, plus more that I've forgotten, I'm sure. Pony handed out the most wonderful lagniappes - personalized PDKK membership cards, plus I got a great PDKK keyring/mirror. Once Lucy was done, we all split up to head out into the day of music.

Lucy smiling for the camera (back row, orange shirt)

Kats at the Gospel tent, left to right: Front: Mike/Albq, Bonnie, Kinderkitti, Lil Kat, Marisol, Neen, Pony. Back: George, Bethesda Boy, Juju's Hat, Sauvage

I walked around a bit, catching parts of several acts. First stop was the WWOZ tent for "Winds of Change vs. NO Sax Quartet". It was marvelous, a whole crowd of sax players on the stage playing wildly like the old World Sax Quartet who I'd always enjoyed. Then I wandered over to Accura briefly to catch some of Clarence Frogman Henry. It was a delicious N.O. mix of upbeat & laid back at same time. Next stop was the Sprint stage for Richard Thompson. But I was not in the mood - too introspective and moody, so I grabbed a cold shrimp Vermicelli Vietnamese lunch and sat in the grandstand listening in at the History of Instruments stage. I went up to use the secret bathroom and was disappointed to find that it was closed. Oh well, the other upstairs bathroom was just fine this uncrowded first day.

On my way downstairs, I stopped at the Lagniappe stage and got hooked immediately by the John Mahone Big Band w/Al Belletto. It was big band jazz with some dissonance and syncopation. They took it out pretty far on some of their tunes and the crowd started leaving, they couldn't take it. But through it all, the music swung hard. It was a great unplanned find.

Little girl playing with shrimp boots and pirogue at the kids area

Next I headed out to the HOB stage to catch James Andrews. Luckily, I ran into Heavy D and we stayed for the entire set. James Andrews had lots of special guests on stage - Trombone Shorty, Brian Breeze, June Yamaguchi, Mark Russell on bass, Gregory Boyd on steel drums, John Gross, plus 2-3 more. The music was funky and very danceable. Heavy D was showing off his fest grid on a retractable string, and we started dancing with it and had a great time. After the set was over, we ran into Sha and Marvin from Florida and Deitrich. Marvin gave us each a PDKK "Under Cover" button. I headed over to the Congo stage to listen to Wofa of New Guinea, and do a little shopping. Bought some earrings and really fun lightswitch covers. Then grabbed an iced coffee and spicey crawfish tails which I took to Economy Hall tent to eat while listening to the Scotty Hill French Market Band. Then it was time to head back to the Lagniappe stage for J. Monque D. I ran into the Heavy D Crawfish Family and sat with them for the set. Eventually Pete joined us and I was able to give him his room key, then Kinderkitti showed up too. We never did get to see Monque D's grandkids -the little pats of butter - because it was time for us to head over to Accura for Al Green.

I stopped to grab a strawberry freeze before diving into the mob at Accura to work our way into the Dupree's tarp. They are such a wonderfully gracious group of folks, willing to share their space with the herd of kats that showed up. I poured the rest of my vodka into the freeze and it was STRONG, more like doing shots than having a drink. So I was pretty toasted by the end of Al's set, which was wonderful. My arms were in the air and I was dancing the whole time. It was my first time seeing Al Green live, and it was divine. We stayed until the end.

Al Green on the big screen

Two lovely kats: NY Texas Red (Kelly) & Jujuvoo

Sha & Big Dave dancing to Al Green

Brewfiend Atlanta Pete & Ricky/NJ blissing out

Neen & Kelly

Pete, Neen, Big Dave & Jujuvoo

Then Pete and I walked over to the HOB stage and grabbed the top row of the bleachers where we caught the last half of Anders' Osborne's set. It was a great view, we could watch the crowds walking by and watch the stage as well. Pete met up with his friends and his sister and I peeled off to walk to Liuzza's.

Anders Osborne at the HOB stage