Jazz Fest 2025 For Grown-Ups: Skip The Lines, Grab The VIP Lounge Pass

Forbes

24-04-2025

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (everyone calls it Jazz Fest) has been an annual celebration of NOLA music and culture since 1970
Every spring, New Orleans distills its essence—music, food, culture, and humidity that could melt your trombone—into two weekends of joyful, full-throttle celebration. For Jazz Fest 2025, from today through April 27 and again from May 1 through 4, the Fair Grounds Race Course becomes a city all its own: 14 performance stages, scores of local food vendors, and tens of thousands of people waiting for Iko Iko to really blow the lid off.
You can absolutely do Jazz Fest the old-fashioned way. I've done it several times. You shuffle in with the crowds, stand in line for crawfish Monica, and maybe eat your beignet while trying not to wear it. But with a little foresight (and the proper intel), you can manage to actually hear the music, savor the food, and sit and hang with your Festie besties in true NOLA style.
This year's headliners include Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Lenny Kravitz, and Kacey Musgraves, but a happy VIP experience hinges less on the lineup (or even the performances, frankly) than on your access.
The Big Chief VIP pass ($1,899) is the most comprehensive. You get access to raised, covered viewing areas at all three main stages, bleacher seating at the Jazz and Blues Tents, and entré to an air-conditioned hospitality lounge with complimentary snacks, a full-service bar, private restrooms, and express re-entry.
Just below that is Grand Marshal VIP ($1,749), which swaps some of the lounging for prime, front-of-stage real estate, plus a shaded hospitality tent and the same VIP perks (including faster entry and bathroom access, which matters more than you'd think). Krewe of Jazz Fest ($929) is a solid middle ground that comes with elevated views at the main stage and access to private bars and restrooms without quite as hefty a price tag.
The official poster for Jazz Fest 2025
If you're coming with a big group—or you just want to live the high life—Jazz Fest Cabanas offer private shaded suites for up to 35 guests, complete with concierge service, catering options, and four parking passes. Pricing starts at $25,000 for 12 guests—and goes up and up from there.
Celebrating its 25th year, the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans recently unveiled upgraded rooms and a refreshed Club Lounge for the true VIP experience.
Jazz Fest can be grueling, even for VIPs, so where you end the day matters. If you want a boutique feel, Hotel St. Vincent in the Lower Garden District or The Chloe uptown both offer style with plenty of Big Easy gentility. Meanwhile, Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter has kitschy old-school NOLA charm, including—wait, what?—a carousel bar that actually rotates (in case you enjoy your post-Fest nightcaps with a side of vertigo).
But the most reliable and opulent nest is the Ritz-Carlton New Orleans, set in a 1908 Beaux Arts building on Canal Street. It's central but quiet, and with the high-flying service and amenities that make it feel like a true escape. Celebrating its 25th year in 2025, the hotel two years ago refreshed its guest rooms and did a major upgrade to its spectacular Club Lounge, a hotel-within-the-hotel where VIPs enjoy private check-in, a dedicated concierge and all-day food, drink and conversation. During Jazz Fest, the dark and sexy Davenport Lounge hosts intimate sets from its namesake jazz singer and trumpeter Jeremy Davenport, who also performs at the festival itself. Once you experience Jazz Fest at the Ritz, you're pretty much hooked for life.
Your mantra as you visit more than 60 local food vendors serving more than 200 NOLA food dishes—"pace yourself!"
Like NOLA itself, Jazz Fest is not a place to simply 'grab a bite.' With over 200 menu items from 60+ local vendors, food at the festival is an Olympian-level event, so pace yourself accordingly. I try to avoid using the word 'pilgrimage,' but it does apply to things like the crawfish strudel, trout Baquet, and the aforementioned Monica and beignets. Everything you crave in New Orleans cooking is right there (some vendors make the majority of their annual income during these two weeks). No, it isn't light fare but it's off-the-charts delicious. Choose wisely.
Even at venerable places like Brennan's, there are VIP twists to push your experience to the next level.
If you're eating off-site, it's fun to explore the full range of what New Orleans does best, and for lots of visitors that means the icons. Venerable establishments like Commander's Palace, Brennan's, Arnaud's and Dooky Chase are mainstays for a reason. And even there, VIPs can add a twist to heighten the experience about that of the typical tourist. Commander's offers a Chef's Table inside the kitchen itself. Emeril's, in the Warehouse District, hosts private dinners in its wine room. Brennan's, birthplace of bananas foster, has a private King's room, Queen's room and Royal room, all done up in lavish New Orleans canopies and tapestries.
Or you could skip the white tablecloths entirely and follow the locals to places where the vibe is lower key and the food still blows your mind. Lately, everyone is talking about N7, hidden behind a tall fence in the Bywater. Set in a garden under twinkling lights, the menu is French-Japanese, with a wine list focused on small European producers. Luvi is a tiny Uptown spot where sashimi meets ghost pepper dan dan noodles, and the $60 'Feed Me' tasting menu feels like an invitation to the chef's dreamy test kitchen. At delicious San Lorenzo, inside Hotel St. Vincent, Italian classics get reimagined with Creole ingredients—catfish schnitzel, caviar beignets—under chandeliers and Corinthian columns.
If you want to add context to all that sensory (and caloric) overload, there are a few standout ways to go deeper.
Bespoke Experiences designs fully tailored itineraries—private jazz shows, behind-the-scenes culinary tours, historic homes. It's not cheap, but you won't forget it. Soul of NOLA offers immersive walking and driving tours through the French Quarter, Tremé, and lesser-traveled neighborhoods. And Michaela's Private Tours, led by a seventh-generation New Orleanian, gives you a more personal lens into the city's stories—from swamps and cemeteries to balconies and back kitchens—from a true local. Call, well, yesterday, to book for Jazz Fest 2025.