Jazz Fest Will Try Again for The Rolling Stones in 2024

The Rolling Stones, by Mark Seliger

The band’s “Hackney Diamonds” tour will bump the festival’s “Locals Thursday” forward to April 25.

[Updated] Jazz Fest is going to try The Rolling Stones one more time. Today, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival sponsored by Shell announced that the band’s Hackney Diamonds tour will make a stop at the Fair Grounds on Thursday, May 2. The festival first booked them in 2019, but Mick Jagger’s hospitalization forced that cancelation. They tried again in 2021 when COVID forced Jazz Fest to move into October, but when COVID numbers didn’t come down, that festival and Stones appearance were canceled as well. Will the band, the city and the festival survive a third try?

The ticket process will begin for Louisiana residents on Wednesday, November 29 at 1 p.m. Central and end November 30 at 10 p.m. In that window, Louisiana residents with a Louisiana zip code will able to purchase up to six tickets. Tickets will cost $225 plus fees at NOJazzFest.com.

On Friday, December 1 at 10 a.m. Central, tickets will go on sale to the general public in the form of weekend wristbands—$290 for first weekend wristbands and $465 for the second weekend including The Rolling Stones. Other weekend passes and VIP packages will go on sale on December 1 as well, and if they’re for the second weekend, they’ll include May 2 and The Rolling Stones as well.

As of this writing, the festival promoters haven’t decided if they’ll make single-day tickets available to the general public on December 1.

The second Thursday is usually “Locals Thursday” with a $50 ticket at the gate for residents. The 2024 Jazz Fest will open instead on a “Locals Thursday,” April 25.

The press release doesn’t address details regarding how Thursday, May 2 will run. In 2019, the plan was for all the other stages to go dark so that the Stones would play without competition or distraction. The plan was also to limit how many tickets were available, reducing the number to correspond to the number of people who would fit in the Festival Stage area—in 2019, Keith Spera had a source that put that in the 47,000 ballpark. Blankets, tarps, and folding chairs wouldn’t be allowed.

Although Jagger told The New York Times that he didn’t think Hackney Diamonds is the band’s last studio album and that it has another album’s worth of songs three-quarters done, it has been received as The Rolling Stones’ swan song. Mick and Keith will both be over 80 when the band plays the Fair Grounds, so it’s reasonable to wonder how many more chances people are going to have to see them.

Jazz Fest will announce the rest of its music lineup for the 2024 Jazz Fest in January.

Updated November 22, 9:24 a.m. PST

The news that the festival has not yet decided if it will offer single-day tickets on December 1 was added after initial publication.