If you’re a fan of New Orleans music festivals, this is your season.

Starting Thursday, the 2026 French Quarter Festival kicks off an extraordinary three weeks of wall-to-wall live music in New Orleans. The four days of the French Quarter Festival are followed immediately by the two four-day weekends of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

In recent years, the French Quarter Fest’s talent roster has come to resemble Jazz Fest’s, minus visiting headliners.

In its early years, the FQF focused on traditional jazz. But more recently, it has expanded its scope to showcase just about every form of indigenous south Louisiana music, including DJs, among the 300 or so acts who will perform on 19 stages along the downtown riverfront and in the French Quarter.

If the weather is favorable, total four-day attendance will number well into the hundreds of thousands.

One reason for the big crowds: General admission to the French Quarter Festival is free (the two nighttime FQF After Dark concerts are ticketed). Fest Family VIP passes, which grant access to reserved viewing, hospitality areas and other perks, are available for purchase. Food and beverage booths will sell 275 different menu items.

You won’t be able to spend cash — as it was last year, the FQF is entirely cashless.

The festival is produced by the eight-person staff of the nonprofit French Quarter Festivals Inc., led by President and CEO Emily Madero. It is supported by sponsorships and food and merchandise sales.

The 43rd edition of FQF has expanded its footprint to Goldring Woldenberg Riverfront Park, a newly christened green space at the Gov. Nicholls Street wharf, which can be accessed along the riverfront or at the foot of Esplanade Avenue.

Several familiar stages will move and/or expand their programming. The Louisiana Fish Fry Stage, with its roster of brass bands and DJs, has moved away from the Old U.S. Mint because of construction. It is temporarily relocating upriver near the Audubon Aquarium.

The Jack Daniel’s Stage is migrating downriver from Spanish Plaza to Goldring Woldenberg Riverfront Park at the Gov. Nicholls Street wharf. Festival favorites Irma Thomas, Big Freedia and Cupid & the Dance Party Express will perform there.

The Pan-American Life Insurance Group Stage will also be at the Gov. Nicholls Street park, with four full days of programming. The House of Blues Voodoo Garden Stage has stepped up its programming.

Loyola University is, for the third year, sponsoring the Esplanade In the Shade Stage. A number of Loyola students will perform and work there throughout the weekend.

First-time French Quarter Fest performers in 2026 include Bobby Rush, the 92-year-old blues singer and harmonica player from Homer; Dawn Richard, whose music draws on both her family’s Mardi Gras Indian heritage and contemporary R&B and pop; and keyboardist Kyle Roussel and his “Church of New Orleans” project.

They’ll be joined by a whole lot of local favorites.

Go to www.fqfi.org for more details.

A DAY-BY-DAY BREAKDOWN OF THE 2026 FQF:

THURSDAY

Traditionally, Thursday is a soft opening, with only a half-dozen stages active. This year’s opening Thursday is a bit busier, with eight stages in play.

The opening-day parade, populated by sponsors and a few bands, sets out at 10 a.m. from the 200 block of Bourbon Street. It turns on St. Ann Street, heading to Jackson Square, where Preservation Brass will once again kick off the music at the NewOrleans.com Stage at 11:15 a.m.

The Abita Beer Stage lineup is solid from top to bottom, with the Soul Rebels, Erica Falls & Vintage Soul and Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers.

Elsewhere on Thursday, you can hear Bobby Rush, Susan Cowsill, blues-based guitarists Mem Shannon and John Mooney, trumpeter Leroy Jones & New Orleans’ Finest, pianist and songwriter Lilli Lewis, the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, the Rebirth Brass Band, Cajun/country/pop fiddler player and singer Amanda Shaw, and Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-chas.

Thursday’s FQF After Dark show at the House of Blues features Revivalists singer David Shaw. Showtime is 9 p.m.; tickets are $42.

FRIDAY

The stage count bumps up to 13 on Friday.

PJ Morton, the homegrown contemporary R&B and gospel singer who is also the keyboardist in pop-rock band Maroon 5, closes the Abita Beer Stage at 6:40 p.m. Friday. He’ll release a combination R&B/gospel double album, “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning,” in June. He may give a sneak peek of a song or two at the festival.

He’s preceded immediately on the same stage by keyboardist Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen and the trombone-powered rock/brass band Bonerama.

Other Friday highlights include John Boutte, Kyle Roussel’s Church of New Orleans, Sally Baby’s Silver Dollars, Cole Williams, the contemporary pop ensemble People Museum and avant-garde Cajun band Lost Bayou Ramblers.

The New Orleans Legacy Coalition features the sons of well-established New Orleans musicians, including Loyola graduate Michael Mullins, whose father is Bonerama trombonist Mark Mullins; 16-year-old piano prodigy River Eckert, son of New Orleans Suspects guitarist Jake Eckert; and percussionist Omari Neville, son of the legendary Cyril Neville. The sons and fathers are slated to perform together at 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Loyola Esplanade in the Shade Stage.

Big Sam’s Funky Nation throws down for the FQF After Dark concert at Good Measure, 600 Carondelet St. Showtime is 9 p.m.; tickets are $22.

SATURDAY

After Saturday kicks off with a 5K race, all 19 stages will be up and running. New Orleans funk/party band Flow Tribe tops off the Abita Beer Stage after legendary Meters bassist George Porter Jr. and his Runnin’ Pardners.

Other Saturday highlights include Big Freedia, New Orleans funk and more keyboardist John “Papa” Gros, singer-songwriters Joy Clark and Paul Sanchez, trumpeters James “Satchmo of the Ghetto” Andrews and Wendell Brunious, clarinetist Tim Laughlin, the Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band and Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, “American Routes” host Nick Spitzer will lead a discussion about New Orleans recording engineer Cosimo Matassa at the Historic New Orleans Collection Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres St. Matassa’s J&M Studios was where Fats Domino and many other rhythm and blues and early rock ‘n’ roll icons recorded.

After the talk at 2 p.m., the HNOC’s Helis Hall, 520 Royal St., hosts a Matassa-themed birthday party with the Mahogany Blue Baby Dolls and DJ Buy It Now spinning recordings made at J&M. Admission to the lecture and party is free.

SUNDAY

It’s the last chance to dance (at least until April 23, when Jazz Fest opens).

Two of New Orleans’ living legends are on the Sunday schedule. Irma Thomas, the age-defying Soul Queen of New Orleans, sings the hits at the relocated Jack Daniel’s Stage at 5 p.m. And Cyril Neville, the percussionist/singer from the Neville Brothers and the Meters, closes the Abita Beer Stage at 6:50 p.m.

The two acts before Neville at the Abita Beer Stage are rapper HaSizzle with the TBC Brass Band preceded by featured Galactic vocalist Jelly Joseph leading her own band.

Other Sunday highlights include trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis & the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, Leyla McCalla, modern jazz ensemble Astral Project, Judith Owen & Her Gentlemen Callers, trumpeter Jeremy Davenport, Americana singer-songwriter Kristin Diable, The Rumble featuring Big Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr., Tuba Skinny and avant-garde cellist Helen Gillet.