By Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen
This year’s Voodoo Music Experience, set for Oct. 26-28, has a new location within its New Orleans City Park home. Adjacent to the site used in 2006, the new location is situated closer to Tad Gormley Stadium where the multi-day festival was born in 1999.
After festival-goers enter the grounds in front of the New Orleans Museum Of Art (NOMA), they will walk by the 200, newly planted six foot crepe myrtle and oak trees. These new trees are part of the ongoing efforts outlined in the park’s master plan to preserve and improve park spaces for recreational, educational, cultural and beautification purposes. More than 1,000 trees in City Park were toppled or extensively damaged after 90 percent of the park was flooded in the 2005 storms.
“Last year’s site was incredibly beautiful,” Stephen Rehage, founder/producer of the Voodoo Music Experience, said in a statement. “But after seeing the new trees in front of the museum, I just could not figure out the logistics of setting up the event around them. It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the new site is perfection, and we still get to showcase NOMA and the park to the rest of the world.”
Acts scheduled to perform include Rage Against the Machine, Kings Of Leon, Toots & the Maytals and M.I.A. on Friday, Oct. 26; the Smashing Pumpkins, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Sinead O’Connor and Ti£sto on Saturday, Oct. 27; Wilco, Dr. John, Fall Out Boy, the Black Crowes and Common on Sunday, Oct. 27. More than 120 acts will appear in three distinct performance areas — Le Ritual, Le Flambeau and Le Carnival — each of which highlights a unique side of the personality of New Orleans.
Tickets are priced at $40 per day, $115 for three days and $450 for LOA Lounge (VIP) passes.
