Two members of Preservation Brass kicked off the 2024 French Quarter Festival by telling lies. In "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey," trumpeter Kevin Louis sang, "The sun was shining fine." In "Up a Lazy River," fellow trumpeter Mark Braud referenced the "blue skies up above." Neither lyric was true Thursday morning at the NewOrleans.com Stage in Jackson Square. The sky was cloudy and gray; the sun was nowhere to be found. The musicians, like many listeners, wore jackets to ward off a breezy chill. But chilly and gray was...

If you stripped the visiting headliners from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival schedule, switched the oil company presenting sponsor, moved it downtown and eliminated tickets, the result would closely resemble the 2024 French Quarter Festival. You won’t find the Rolling Stones, Chris Stapleton, Queen Latifah or Earth Wind & Fire at the 41st French Quarter Fest presented by Chevron, which opens Thursday and continues through Sunday. But you will sample a bounty of 270 musical acts, drawn almost exclusively from New Orleans and south Louisiana, on 21 stages...