NEW ORLEANS (August 21, 2018) — The 6th annual Downriver Festival on Saturday, September 8th, 2018 celebrates the environmental, cultural, and economic impact of the Mississippi River and the land it built through live music, panels, children’s activities, and walking tours that explore this year’s theme “Gumbo and Daiquiris.” Festival events occur at the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Mint and French Market from 10:30 am to 8:00 pm. Enjoy the last taste of summer with delicious gumbo and your favorite daiquiris from six local festival food vendors.

Live music outside at the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Mint from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm will include performances by Javier Olando with AsheSon, Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots, Treme-Lafitte Brass Band, Bluezy Pink Magnolias, Arrowhead Brass Band and Kinfolk Brass Band. “Downriver Festival, celebrating its 6th year, was created to revel in the cultural exchange centered in New Orleans, a culmination of existing traditions and new influences of the Mississippi River’s connecting currents.” said Greg Lambousy, Director of the New Orleans Jazz Museum. “This year, as the city celebrates the Tricentennial, Downriver Festival is a time for these cultures to come together once again, enjoying New Orleans' diverse influences with gumbo, live music, and panel discussions on the river’s rich resources throughout the day.”

Kinfolk Brass Band will start the day off with a second line, beginning in Jackson Square at 10:30 am and heading to New Orleans Jazz Museum "Without the Mississippi River, New Orleans as we know it just wouldn't exist," said Matt Hampsey, Supervisory Park Ranger of New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. "Downriver Fest is the perfect way to celebrate the river and showcase what it brings to the city and to share the many gifts New Orleans has to give to the world."

Food vendors at this year’s Downriver Festival include Casa Borrega, Cafe Carmo, Grannie’s Cooking Pot, Queenie’s Daiquiris, Van’s Snoballs and Miss Linda’s YakaMein aka “The YakaMein Lady.” Additionally, The French Market will host a cooking demonstration stage, located in the Farmers Market from 11:00 am to 4:30 pm “Daiquiris and Gumbo are indelible fixtures in New Orleans food culture and we are happy to highlight both the timeless icy treat and beloved stew’s culinary contributions at this year’s Downriver Festival,” offered Jeremy Smith, Director of Marketing and Development at French Market Corporation.

Indoor lectures on the 3rd floor of the New Orleans Jazz Museum from 11:00 am to 6:15 pm feature experts from around the state discussing everything from “Our Vulnerable Coastal City in Historical Context” to “Audubon’s Louisiana: Postcards from Eden, Lessons from the Past for the Future.” No One Ever Went Hungry: Acadian Food Traditions Then & Now, a film by Kevin McCaffrey, will also be screened. “Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition is thrilled to be participating in Downriver Fest again this year. These panels are going to be engaging for a wide variety of audiences and we’re looking forward to being a part of a busy, entertaining day”, said Helen Rose Patterson, Greater New Orleans Outreach Coordinator for Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition.

The annual Downriver Festival Walking Tour, led by Nathan Lott, Director of Water Collaborative, will focus on the riverfront from Canal Street to the Bywater, including recently revamped Woldenberg Park and Crescent Park and feature special guests: Amanda Rivera, Eskew Dumez + Ripple (Crescent Park), K.C. Guidry, Audubon Nature Institute (Gov. Nichols Wharf near French Market), Kerri Maggio and Johanna Leibe, Perez Architects (Moonwalk). Walking Tour participants will meet some of the landscape architects and urban designers helping to reimagine the Mississippi River waterfront, and learn more about plans to transform former wharves into public space from the city and Audubon Commission. The walking tour begins at 9:00 am at the New Orleans Jazz Museum gates on Esplanade Ave, and concludes in Jackson Square at 10:30 am - in time for the Kinfolk Brass Band Second Line!

In addition, this year’s Downriver Festival will offer a variety of free educational and artistic activities for children at the Children’s Tent, sponsored generously by WGSO 990AM and the St. Bernard Parish President. The tent will be open from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm and feature crafts and activities by the National Wildlife Federation, Restore the Mississippi River Delta, New Harmony High, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, National Park Service, New Orleans Jazz Museum, Green Project, and more.

Downriver Festival is presented by a coalition of institutions that include the New Orleans Jazz Museum, The Friends of the Cabildo, The French Market Corporation, The New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, and the Louisiana Museum Foundation, this year’s festival partners include The Louisiana Seafood Board, The Restore the Mississippi River Delta Coalition, The Louisiana Children’s Museum, the Consulate General of Mexico in New Orleans, Cervantes Foundation, Water Collaborative, Ripple Effect, WWNO Radio, Gamble Communications, Parish of St. Bernard, Islenos Museum, Offbeat, Jamalar Agency, WHIV FM New Orleans, UNO Federal Credit Union, WGSO 990AM, Hundred Acre Design, Telemundo New Orleans, Tropical 105.7, Euclid Records, LSU AgCenter, Louisiana Master Gardeners, and Tulane’s Center for the Gulf South.

For more information on the Downriver Festival, please visit downriverfest.org or visit us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @downriverfest.

About The New Orleans Jazz Museum

The New Orleans Jazz Museum celebrates jazz in the city where it was born. Through dynamic interactive exhibits, multigenerational educational programming, research facilities and engaging musical performances, the music New Orleans made famous is explored in all its forms. Through partnerships with local, national and international educational institutions, the New Orleans Jazz Museum promotes the global understanding of jazz as one of the most innovative, historically pivotal musical art forms in world history. For more information on upcoming performances, visit nolajazzmuseum.org. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @NOLAJazzMuseum.