Music Lineup Announcement for the Congo Square Rhythms Festival 2025

The Congo Square Rhythms Festival Returns to Congo Square in Armstrong Park March 29 and 30, 2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – The 2025 Congo Square Rhythms Festival presented by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation returns to Louis Armstrong Park and Congo Square on Saturday, March 29, and Sunday, March 30, with two performance stages and large local food and arts markets.

Admission to the festival is free and open to the public.

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation unveiled the music lineup for the Congo Square Rhythms Festival. Nestled in Armstrong Park, the Congo Square Stage will feature a drum circle each day, and will showcase an impressive array of local talent including Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Golden Eagles, Bo Dollis Jr. & the Wild Magnolias, Trumpet Mafia, The N’th Power, Robin Barnes & the Fiya Birds, Jamal Batiste, Kari J, several African dance and drumming ensembles, and more! Simultaneously, the Tremé Stage will feature a variety of musical acts including New Breed Brass Band, the Original Pinettes Brass Band, Erica Falls, Gladney, Cole Williams, Da Truth Brass Band, Alicia Renee aka “Blue Eyes”, Nola Resistance, and several more!

The festivities kick off with a live concert by Dr. Michael White’s Original Liberty Jazz Band at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center, 1225 N. Rampart Street, on Friday, March 28. Tickets for this show are $10, available here.

Leading up to the festival, a Tom Dent Congo Square Lecture will explore the history of Economy Hall and how the legacy of that famed cultural institution remains alive and well in New Orleans today. Former Louisiana Poet Laureate Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy will open the event. The lecture is free and open to the public on Wednesday, March 12, from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center, 1225 N. Rampart Street. RSVP HERE.

All events will be livestreamed courtesy of Jazz & Heritage radio station WWOZ 90.7FM.

---

live Music schedule 

Two Full Days of Music 10:45am to 7:30pm 

No recording. Please, no audio or video recording of any performances at the festival. 

---

Class Got Brass is presented by the Gia Maione Prima Foundation.

The festival also includes a roaring tribute to New Orleans’ brass band tradition. The Class Got Brass competition is presented by the Gia Maione Prima Foundation and takes place on Saturday, March 29, where middle and high schools in Louisiana have the opportunity to create a New Orleans-style brass band with up to 12 members. They’ll enter a competition in the form of a “second-line” parade with celebrity judges, and more than $50,000 worth of instruments and supplies are up for grabs for the winning schools’ music programs. Learn more at classgotbrass.org.

---

The 2025 Congo Square Rhythms Festival is proudly sponsored by Goldfarb Financial, Cathead Distillery, Louisiana Lottery, Urban South, Maverick Entertainment Group, WWNO 89.9, Louisiana Office of Cultural Development, National Endowment for the Arts. 

About the Gia Maione Prima Foundation:

In 2011, the Gia Maione Prima Foundation was established with the assistance of long-time friend and counsel, Anthony J. Sylvester of Sherman Atlas Sylvester & Stamelman LLP. Gia Maione Prima was a singer and the widow of Louis Prima, the famous jazz musician, singer and composer from New Orleans. The GMPF makes donations to tax-exempt organizations supporting and encouraging an appreciation for American jazz, American popular music and jazz performance as well as the fine arts.

About the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation:

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation invests proceeds from Jazz Fest and additional funds that we raise for year-round programming in education, economic development and cultural enrichment. Education programs include the Don “Moose” Jamison Heritage School of Music, the Tom Dent Congo Square Lectures, the Class Got Brass competition for school brass bands, a youth audio workshop program, youth vocal workshops, and more!  Economic Development initiatives include the Community Partnership Grants, the Catapult Fund accelerator program and Sync Up entertainment industry workshops.  Cultural enrichment programs include the Jazz & Heritage Concert Series and annual Foundation Festivals: the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival, the Congo Square Rhythms Festival, the Tremé Creole Gumbo Festival and the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival. Importantly, these are free programs that the Jazz and Heritage Foundation has developed over many years to ensure that we give back to Louisiana. The Jazz & Heritage Foundation also owns radio station WWOZ 90.7-FM and the Jazz & Heritage Archive.  In late 2014, the Foundation opened the George and Joyce Wein Jazz & Heritage Center – an education and community facility named for the late Jazz Fest founder George Wein and his wife Joyce. In March of 2020, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation established the Jazz & Heritage Music Relief Fund – a statewide relief fund to support Louisiana musicians who were affected by the pandemic. In the last two years the Jazz & Heritage Foundation has been able to provide relief funds of more than $2 million dollars supporting musicians, music industry gig workers, Black Masking Indians and other indigenous cultural practitioners. To learn more about the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, please visit us online at www.jazzandheritage.org

MEDIA CONTACT

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation

Kia Robinson Hatfield

kia [at] jazzandheritage.org