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The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (aka JazzFest) is a 7-day (over 2 long-weekends) festival with hundreds of bands playing on 12 stages daily with national, regional and local acts as well as international artists.

Mahalia Jackson, often called the greatest gospel singer, returned to her hometown to appear at the first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in April of 1970. While attending the Louisiana Heritage Fair in Congo Square (then known as Beauregard Square), she and Duke Ellington, who also appeared at the event, came upon the Eureka Brass Band leading a crowd of ...