Jazz Fest 2012 - My 25th Anniversary

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and I have a long and magical relationship. We have danced countless times together, seen a myriad of shows (many within a 24-hour period), danced to many sunsets, seen many sunrises, and had so many moments of sheer bliss that it's like I have an endless supply of tonic from the fountain of youth. What I took away from my 25th Jazz Fest is the bond and quality of the friendships formed during the past quarter-century. Smiles, conversation, history. Now, with each my kids notching a decade of Jazz Fests under their belts, the cycle of Festing continues strong in the Jurick family. I can't tell you how proud I am to see their joy and dancing and laughter - they can't WAIT to go to New Orleans every year. Here's a handful of photographs from this year's slice of the good life. Enjoy...

With Yo Ticket in Yer Hand, You Gotsa Go to New Orleans...

Kids were a big part of this year's festival for us. We took our own, danced with our friends' own kids, and met some new beautiful friends along the way into the fairgrounds each day


Walking into the Fairgounds on the first day, we got a little Indian-horn-mojo-magic with the mighty Free Agents

Can there be anything better than the Crawfish Po-Boy? I could (and did) eat 2 each day

Sunset reggae action with Ziggy Marley - the kids were dancing like crazy at the end of his set

Our kids' sitter, Alex was a rock star


Anything more beautiful to my eyes?

Best shirt I saw the entire weekend

Florence & The Machine put my girls into a trance

Alex took us to the New Orleans community art house for a wicked cool treehouse experience. The kids (and I) couldn't believe the amazing fun we were having post Fest first day - look at this craziness! Took the owners 3 years to make this thing

Let's get this day started right!

All smiles at Jazz Fest

Cajun dancin' at Fais Do Do


My girl loved Jazz Fest so much she was bending over backwards

Sunset on the Mississippi - view from the Windsor, oh how sweet you were to us this weekend!

My beautiful in the sunset sillouette

Truly there are few live shows more searing (and soaking wet hot) than Dave Malone cooking up the Maple Leaf. Everyone was drenched inside that place! Thanks Shari Frank for putting on a killer show for the Krewe of Crawfish Stew

Only Eric Krasno goes toe to toe with Camille for the ultimate shredding face

Where there's funk, there's Adam Deitch

My Boy Mark Rechler in the right place at the right time!

The intimacy of the Leaf in one frame

The proof of 5 shows in 1 night

Hang in there another 8 years kids, you'll be allowed into the holy temple of music just 10 feet away from your back. Until then, keep posing like you are too cool for the place.

Extremely rare photo of yours truly

Jazz Fest is truly heavenly

I was the official ambassador of Rock Paper Photo while in New Orleans. In honor of the Original Meters performance (first time in 30 years the 4 original members of the seminal funk band played together on the same stage), we printed up this beautiful fine art photograph of Art "Papa Funk" Neville that I captured in 2006 at Tipitina's. Rock Paper Photo is the ultimate collection of limited edition, fine art, rock and roll photographs - hand signed by the photographer. For a limited time, get $100 off any piece in the collection. Use the code in the lower right of the bio. Happy Jazz Fest Ya'll!

Need We Say More?

And we're off...

See you ya'll next week.

Jurick's Jazzfest 2008 Multimedia Extravaganza

Where do I begin? Really, how is it possible to sum up the experience I had this year in words? The usual Jurick phrases somehow don't carry weight anymore. Epic, Uber-Epic, Gargantuan, Incredible, Amazing, Herculean...they all fall short. The best I can come up with is DREAM. I had a dream last Tuesday night and woke up on Monday afternoon to quite possibly the most miraculous dream one could possibly imagine. I dreamed it all - from dancing, smiling children on the grassy fairgrounds jamming to Widespread Panic to the greatest Radiators SNAFU show in history to friends and family diner in a private room at the 140 year-old Antoine's restaurant to hearing the joyful sounds of Stevie Wonder with my kids on my shoulders to singing in the rain to Michael Franti and later dripping wet sweat dancing to Michael Franti at Tipitina's to the Meters with Mike Gordan dueling bass with George Porter, Jr. to 5am funk on Frenchmen Street with my hero Eric Krasno to the Pide Piper Kingsley leading all our kids onto the stage to see the Radiators close out the Festival in front of thousands.

More than anything, friends and family were the fabric of this year's festival. There are so many people I shared this incredible dream with and I love every one of them for dancing by my side. Though it was my gorgeous wife, Gal and exalted friend, Kingsley Stoken who sprinkled magic pixie dust above my head last Tuesday night to send me into that long, bountiful and miraculous dream.

Somehow, through the wonder of technology, I was able extract those memories and collect images and video to share with you. I hope you like my dream...



photo: Dino Perruci








photo: Gal Jurick












photo: Jacques Lobato








Video: courtesy of Jason King

MJ & The Foidy All-Stars with the Radiators:


Gal Introduces the Radiators:


Video: courtesy of Jill Vandercar
Backstage Birthday Toast with the Rads and Family/Friends



Video: by Michael Jurick
Kids dancing onstage for Radiators Jazzfest finale at Fairgrounds



Full Slideshow: