Things to Do in New Orleans This March

With March upon us, expect a good slate of early-spring activities in the Crescent City. Also, the weather is warmer — hopefully just pleasantly warmer — the kind of spring sunshine that equals t-shirts and jeans, if not shorts.

Mainly, we consider this time of year an awesome window when the Carnival wraps up (or, depending on the year, is over) and the festival season is yet to begin. This is that rare time when the city settles for a very slight breather between its biggest parties and still means there’s a ton of stuff to do. Here are the highlights.

Wednesday at the Square

Every Wednesday, March 6 – May 8, 2024

Unwind with a cold beverage on any given Wednesday at the Square, a free concert music series held in the spring in Lafayette Park (located one block off of Poydras Street, between St. Charles Avenue and Camp Street in the heart of the Central Business District) every Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. From March through May, these outdoor concerts feature a variety of jazz, rock, swam pop, brass, Latin rhythms, and more. This year’s lineup features Big Sam’s Funky Nation, Brass-A-Holics, Lost Bayou Ramblers, and more.

Bring a chair or a blanket, or head to the front of the stage to partake in some dancing. You can bring your dog, and there are vendor booths surrounding the park where you can buy food and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages (no outside food or beverages, please).

Danny Barker Banjo & Guitar Festival

Wednesday-Sunday, March 6-10, 2024

The Danny Barker Banjo + Guitar Festival pays homage to New Orleanian musician, writer, instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and lyricist Danny Barker. The three-day festival features a mixture of programming including live music performances, panel discussions and workshops, special events and outings, second lines, and more. It will be held at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Tickets are $15-$75.

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week

Monday-Saturday, March 11-16, 2024

New this year, the New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) is partnering with the New Orleans Book Festival to produce back-to-back events. The events are not merging, but they have scheduled their conference dates to line up during the same week in March, with one crossover day of shared programming on Thursday, March 14.

NOEW kicks off three days of speeches, speaker sessions and networking events on March 11. On March 14, the entrepreneurial portion will culminate in Idea Village’s annual IDEApitch competition, which showcases growth-stage companies competing for an investment prize. NOEW is now in its 13th year and attracted roughly 2,700 people to its four-day event last March, which included a weekend musical festival (not happening this year). For this year’s keynote speakers and more info, check out the event’s website.

The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane

Thursday-Saturday, March 14-16, 2024

The New Orleans Book Festival features both fiction and non-fiction and readings, panel discussions, symposia, and keynote speeches. It also provides an opportunity for outlets, authors and readers to interact with each other. Saturday is Family Day, so bring your kids to the Tulane campus for some fun. Last year’s notable authors and speakers on the impressive roster included Andy Borowitz, Richard Campanella, Maureen Dowd, and many more — so expect A-list greatness this year as well. And, as was noted above, this year marks the first partnership with NOEW with one day of crossover events.

St. Patrick’s Day

Sunday, March 17, 2024

It often comes as a surprise to first-time visitors to New Orleans that this city has a deep Irish heritage, which traces back to its history as a Catholic port of call that was one of the main entry points for the USA. There’s an entire neighborhood in this town called the Irish Channel, plus a plethora of fantastic pubs that eschew cheesy emerald-green Irish stereotypes for rough-hewn hospitality (Finn McCool’s and Erin Rose come to mind, plus a selection of our favorite Irish pubs in the French Quarter).

As such, there are plenty of Irish in this town, and thus, the weekend closest to St. Patrick’s Day is an important one for the city of New Orleans. Numerous parades kick off, including the massive Irish Channel parade (on Saturday, March 16, 2024), where float riders pass cabbages to the screaming crowds.

The Downtown Irish Club Parade rolls on Sunday, March 17, 2024, from the Bywater to the French Quarter, making several pit stops on its way to Bourbon Street.

How much you enjoy all of the above is linked to your tolerance for public drinking and green beer. St. Patrick’s Day in New Orleans is not quite as kid-friendly as the Carnival — you’ll still see families, but these parades are more aimed at adults.

Super Sunday

Sunday, March 17, 2024

The annual gathering of the Mardi Gras Indian tribes is perhaps the most open means of accessing this unique element of New Orleans backstreet culture. The tribes will be out in large numbers on Super Sunday, which usually falls on the third Sunday of March, but this year coincides with St. Patrick’s Day.

While the Mardi Gras Indians have their set routes and parade areas, no one event packs the tribes into one public space like Super Sunday. In this case, said public spaces are A.L. Davis Park, at the corner of Washington and LaSalle streets; and Bayou St. John in Mid-City, at the intersection of Orleans and Moss streets, on the bayou’s banks and the Orleans Street bridge. The Indian procession usually leaves the gathering spot around 1 p.m.

We can’t stress this enough: Be respectful if you go. Take pictures at a distance, and don’t get in the way of marching Indians or their friends, family and attached bands. Super Sunday has been overrun with spectators in the past years, so please do your part to enjoy this amazing cultural event responsibly.

Some background: The Mardi Gras Indians are the most vibrant, visible and conversely mysterious expressions of African-American New Orleans culture. To distill them into an extremely simplistic sentence: Mardi Gras Indians are African-American New Orleanians who dress up (or in local lingo, ”mask”) as stylized Native Americans.

They take to the streets in fantastic costumes made of beads, feathers, and sequins that cost thousands of dollars, weigh hundreds of pounds, and require hundreds of days of painstaking labor; no element of costume creation is automated.

On Mardi Gras Day, Super Sunday, St. Joseph’s Day, and a select few other special occasions, the “chiefs” and their tribes parade through the city, chanting, shouting and challenging each other to determine who is “the prettiest.”

There’s a ton more background on this fascinating subject at the Backstreet Cultural Museum in the historic Tremé neighborhood.

Tennessee Williams Literary Festival

Wednesday-Sunday, March 20-24, 2024

Writers have always been drawn to New Orleans. Few cities in America (or the world, really), can match this town for its atmosphere, sense of place, or penchant for fun and pathos (all good elements of a writing life).

The Tennessee Williams Literary Festival celebrates this city’s love affair with the written word, as well as writers’ love affair with New Orleans. Notable authors will be in attendance, hosting seminars, workshops, and lectures.

Plus, this being the Tennessee Williams Festival, there is, of course, a “Stella” shouting contest, which involves folks screaming out the iconic scene from A Streetcar Named Desire to appreciative crowds on Jackson Square. The program will also include a scholar conference, walking tours, masterclasses, theater, and more.

Note that on Friday-Sunday, March 22-24, 2024, the city will also host the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival, an alternative literary event that celebrates LGBTQ+ authors. The three-day festival will include panel discussions and a fair amount of networking opportunities between authors, editors, and publishers.

Congo Square Rhythms Festival

Saturday-Sunday, March 23-24, 2024

The musical heritage of New Orleans follows a line that can be traced all the way back to Africa, where the black diaspora begins. The music of that continent evolved here and in the Caribbean, influenced by Europe and indigenous music, into the forms and traditions that are the core of today’s New Orleans sound.

This vital legacy is celebrated in Armstrong Park, on the grounds of Congo Square, where local slaves were once permitted to practice the musical traditions of Africa and the Caribbean. Congo Square Rhythms Festival is a celebration of global and local music, and offers both amazing food and a fantastic lineup of music. The festival kickoff concert on Friday, March 22, features Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Golden Eagles.

Presented by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, the festival features Mardi Gras Indians, African dance, brass bands, soul-funk, as well as indigenous music of Honduras, and highlife from West Africa. The large art market and a Soul Food Court complete the experience.

Don’t miss one of the fest’s highlights, the Mardi Gras Indian “battle” — when the tribes gather in the center of the square, plus the festival’s largest to date assemblage of New Orleans-based African dance troupes (they typically perform on Sunday).

Crescent City Classic

Saturday, March 30, 2024

The annual Crescent City Classic is a fun local tradition. Held on the Saturday before Easter and open to both amateur and pro runners, the event is the city’s signature 10k race. (Expect some runners dressed in Easter-themed costumes.) The race starts at 8 a.m. on Champions Square and then proceeds down Esplanade Avenue to the New Orleans City Park. After the race (8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.) there’s a festival at the park’s Festival Grounds, with local music and food. You can register for the race and buy festival tickets on the event’s website.

Are you visiting New Orleans this spring? We’d love for you to stay at one of our Valentino hotels! And if you do, consider booking a guided tour of the famous St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 to experience the hauntingly beautiful past of New Orleans. And, for easy, informative sightseeing, we recommend the City Sightseeing New Orleans city tour on the open-top, double-decker bus. It runs every 30 minutes through the Garden District, French Quarter, and CBD. You can hop on and off anytime!

Happy Spring!