New Orleans Jazz Fest Lineup Announced

Before I get to the Jazz Fest lineup, a few other interesting recent lineup announcements I thought I'd touch on:

• Fortress Festival in Fort Worth, April 29-30.  Run the Jewels, Purity Ring, Nathaniel Rateliff, Houndmouth, Alvvays, Quaker City Night Hawks (who you may not have heard of but they rock), and Slowdive (as well as Flying Lotus and others).  Small lineup, but a pretty rad one.
• Rolling Loud Festival in Miami, May 5-7.  Best damn rap-centric lineup I think I've ever seen. Kendrick, Lil Wayne, A$AP Rocky, Kevin Gates, Action Bronson, Flatbush Zombies, Future, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Mac Miller, Tyler, Migos, and much more. Pretty insane.  Too bad it isn't in Houston (with Scarface!)
• Firefly in Delaware got a weird grouping, with the Weeknd, 21 Pilots, Muse, and Bob Dylan.  But they also got Franz Ferdinand and Weezer and Chance the Rapper and the Shins.  But that top line ain't doin' nuttin' fo me.

Jazz Fest, which sometimes competes with the big four for strength of lineup (and last year killed it, in my opinion) brings another really strong lineup for 2017.  

Big Three:

• Stevie Wonder.  Hell yes.  I've never seen him, but I feel like I need to remedy that quick before the curse of 2016 starts taking more of our older stars.
• Tom Petty.  Another I've never seen but I want to really badly.  I think I have a line on tickets for when he comes to the Erwin Center in May, but this would be tight.
• Maroon 5.  Really?  I've seen them for years listed as one of the big Live Nation bands, but never thought they'd be playing a big festival.  Maybe this is the year (with Bey coming to Coach) that the pop stars really come to big festivals.

Other exciting stuff:

• Dave Matthews Band.  I've been wanting to see these guys again for a long time, and was hoping they might do ACL last year.
• Kings of Leon.  I'm figuring them to make an appearance in Austin this fall, and would enjoy seeing them again.
• Usher and the Roots.  Huh.  Another surprising one, to have a pop/R&B guy like Usher show up at a festival stage.
• Alabama Shakes.  HOW ARE THEY BEHIND F'ING MEGHAN TRAINOR ON THE POSTER?!?  All of New Orleans should be bombed for this atrocity.
• Snoop Dogg!
• Lorde.  Again, she appears to be the one on tour of all the fests this year, like the XX.
• Nas!  I'd love to check him out live.  Boss level.
• Wilco.  Would be cool to see them again.  And the fact that these dudes are 17 artists down on the poster is pretty wild.
• Widespread Panic.  I'd go see them again.  Last time was like 20 years ago, but I'd check it out.
• Also: Leon Bridges, The Revivalists, Rhiannon Giddens, Dawes, Margo Price.  Hell, I bet Earth, Wind, and Fire would be fun.  And Blues Traveler apparently still exists!  Holy crap!

Really solid lineup.  But, in addition to the aforementioned Maroon 5, you've got Meghan Trainor, Usher, and Pitbull.  That is a pretty heavy mega-pop-star contingent for a festival. Interesting to see.

As with last year, it is a two weekend festival, but unlike ACL, they do fresh lineups for each weekend, which kind of sucks for those of us who aren't in N.O., and so most days are actually relatively tame.  For example, despite all of those great bands I just listed, the first Friday gives you Nas and Leon Bridges, and then a bunch of stuff I'm not that interested in like Harry Connick Jr. Or the first Saturday gives you Alabama Shakes, and then some blah stuff like Maroon 5 and Usher and Jonny Lang.  So, really, none of the days is exceptionally strong, and you don't get any repeats of the big headliners.  I prefer the ACL format where you get all the big stars regardless of which weekend you go.  But, if I live in N.O., I'd love this ability to spend two full weekends eating this whole pie.