Saturday was a day for meeting kats! Andrew, Little J, Heavy D, Purple Trish Juls/NJ, Ricky, Jersey Jim

I had really enjoyed my first day at the Fest, being the first time I'd ever been solo. I decided I really liked being on my own. The time spent running errands like trips to the bathroom and for food was cut in half, so I saw a lot more music. Plus, since I was planning to go out every night this year due to my shortened visit, I had decided not to worry about getting to the fest first thing every day, and that seemed to work out just fine. So Saturday, we slept until we woke up, then Pete and I wandered down to the Cafe' du Monde for a sugary breakfast. We were surprised to see a line going all the way down the block of folks waiting to be seated. That seemed odd to me, so I grabbed Pete and we went around to the back and sure enough, were able to walk right in and grab a table right away. After breakfast, we walked back through the quarter up to Rampart street to catch the fairgrounds bus in front of Donna's.

The bus was packed and the ride was hilarious. A bunch of girls were giving Pete a hard time about wearing his Florida tshirt. Eventually, the whole crowd around us broke out into song - Diamonds are A Girls Best Friend. It was definitely a NOLA bus experience! We hopped off and wandered in to the fairgrounds around 1pm, not too bad.

First stop was for a Mango Freeze on which I poured a yummy Kettel One floater, plus a beer for Pete, then we went to the Fais Do Do Stage to hear Suroit of Canada, along with Hadley Castille, a legendary old cajun fiddler. I knew we'd run into TurboDog at this gig, and sure enough, there he was, so we hung together drinking and dancing to the music. It was more electric than I had expected, for some reason I thought it would be more acoustic. But it was a fine way to start the day.

Brewfiend Pete and Turbodog Chris at Suroit

Handley Castille with Suroit at Fais Do Do Stage

Afterwards, Pete headed off to spend some time with his sister , and I wandered back to the Shade Camp to say hi to StlBarb. She wasn't there, but Lakekat was, so I said a quick hello and passed out buttons then headed off to the Sprint Stage for Jon Cleary. On the way, I ran into the Jersey Krewe, who were quickly turning into my constant companions for fest this year, and I couldn't be happier. Juls, Jersey Jim, Ricky, Andrew and Sha - what a great bunch of folks to spend fest with! We worked our way over to the Dupree's tarp and found them, but no Jujuvoo. She had decided to skip fest today. But Jack and Sherry made us feel welcome and we hung out there for the whole set of fantastic funky music. It was my first time seeing Cleary and he was as good as everyone had told me he'd be. My butt couldn't stop shaking! While we were there funking out, Beach Bob arrived. He'd driven straight to the fairgrounds from the highway and was wired for sound. It was great to see him!

Jersey Jim at Jon Cleary

Beach Bob arrives!

Jack Dupree, our gracious tarp host

Chris, another of the Dupree's

Juls/NJ and Jersey Jim at Cleary

Ricky, Andrew, Neen, Jersey Jim, Beach Bob

Neen & Beach Bob

Ricky/NJ, a great new kat!

After Cleary was over, we stopped at Congo Stage to see some of The Super Rail band. Juls spotted TurboDog so we danced our way through the crowd and hung with him for awhile. Afterwards, we split up – Beach Bob told us that Wendy and Trish had a tarp behind the sound booth, so we agreed to try to meet up there for the Funky Meters. I made a pit stop at the portalets and decided I needed some food. The closest and quickest booth was the Soft Tacos stand. So I decided to try a shrimp taco. It's the first time that I've had fest food that I didn't care for. It was really pretty awful, rubbery shrimp that tasted frozen, not fresh, on a soft tortilla with a bland soupy sauce poured onto it. I wound up tossing it in the trash before I dove into the Accura crowds. I made my way to the sound board and all around it, but never saw Wendy & Trish or the Jersey kats. But it was fun dancing through the crowds to the Funky Meters. I was still hungry so I headed out and grabbed some jambalaya and iced coffee and went to the grandstand to cool down. I sat at the Heritage Stage eating my lunch and listening to three New Orleans women who were traditional healers, discussing healing and voodoo. It was really interesting. Then I popped into the cd tent to load up on some cd's, since I wouldn't have time to hit the stores in the quarter this trip.

Next stop was the jazz tent to hear Nicholas Payton and his Armstrong Tribute. I was shocked to see a huge mob on the concrete all around the outside of the tent. Folks had set up chairs and tarps and were camped on the concrete, listening to the music through the speakers hanging at the tent entryway. I hung around for awhile and listened, but the mood was wierd, so I soon moved on. And right away, ran into the Jersey Krewe again. They were heading towards Cronk at the Lagniappe stage, so I tagged along. I'm glad they convinced me to join them, the band was great. The first half of their set was beautiful jazzy fusion, that reminded me of Gil Scott Heron. We finally got to meet TybeeDawg and his wife and son, who were at Cronk as well. It was great meeting another Georgia Kat!

Sha, Jersey Jim, Juls & Ricky at Cronk

Jersey Jim, Juls & TybeeDawg

TybeeDawg, Juls, Jersey Jim & Neen

Juls, Jersey Jim, Neen & Andrew (in back)

I stayed for half a set, until they started doing more hip-hop/rap type stuff, at which point I grabbed Jersey Jim and we headed back to the Jazz Tent to see Max Roach, a legendary drummer. Once again, there were crowds outside, but this time we decided to venture into the tent and after a short wait, were able to get excellent seats where we sat and listened to a great second half of Roach's jazz set. I wish I could have heard who the musicians were that he had with him, the bass player was awesome. We stayed for awhile, before getting up and heading out to Liuzza's to end the day.



The Legendary Max Roach

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