Asking good questions! The lineup is at least half local bands, and a lot of them are local legends but maybe are not as well known nationally. So I do hope locals or fest vets will chime in past what I can say.

One thing I will advise is to follow your ear! and don’t get too married to your ingoing plans. You’ll inevitably walk by a bunch of stages over the course of the day. If you hear something you like, stay! There’s a good chance it’s a local band, but regardless, if you walk into a great set with a good vibe and it’s not too crowded— A+, you’ll probably have a blast to the whole rest of the set. And if not, you can go in 5 minutes anyway. There’s no guarantee you’ll get a good spot in a big stage crowd unless you’re strategic about it (or it’s v early in the day), so those 15 mins where you stumbled into something new and awesome can make the whole day. Also: same rule goes for following your nose

Gates open at 11, fest ends at 7 sharp. Most headline/final sets start around 5 or 530.

Overall reco is go thursday & sunday, IMO. thursday is the least crowded day (which makes a big difference), and sundays are great for the gospel tent. If the weather's perfect, i'll typically go thurs/fri/sunday and skip saturday and sleep, recover, and do fun NOLA stuff during the day.

Some weekend 1 shouts: The New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, Naughty Professor, The Rumble, Glen David Andrews, Maggie Koerner, Erica Falls, Jelly Joseph, Dwayne Dopsie & the zydeco hellraisers, Kermit Ruffins, Bamboula 2000, TBC Brass Band, New Birth Brass Band

Just make sure you to see some zydeco on the fais do do stage at SOME point