Satchmo Summerfest, New Orleans, LA
Saturday, August 5, 2017
Benny Jones, Sr., leader of the Tremé Brass Band, checks in to the festival grounds. An hour later, as they began their third song, the rain intensified, thunder then lightning rolled in like a rowdy and scary cosmic second line parade. An organizer stepped to the stage, "We are canceling the show. Please walk into the U.S. Mint building, we want you to be safe. Take your camp chairs with you, they might not be here when you return." Standing in a couple of inches of rain, it occurred to me that one lightning strike could fry about 300 of us under the tent.
"Didn't It Rain" Oh my, it was pouring buckets, I'm thinking that John Boutté put this on his playlist as he heard the rain pelting down on the pavilion over his head.
Boutté and his band of first line New Orleans musicians...Oh yes, one hour later, lightning, thunder and ten inches of rain canceled Satchmo Summeriest, organizers told us to leave the tent, head inside to the shelter of the U. S. Mint...an ironically prophetic song choice.
Rain cascades off the tent covering the stage and audience sitting inside.
Fifteen minutes later, The August 5 pounding torrential rain drowns out John Boutté singing "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught," a song whose theme resonates more today than the time in which it was written for Rogers and Hammerstein musical "The King and I" first performed in 1951.
New Orleanians love their music but this is getting a little crazy. Proof is that here they are huddled under a pavilion while a monsoon rages outside it. They might even stand in the rain to twist and shout to the lyrics of the theme song to the TV series "Tremé,"practically a New Orleans anthem. The lucky ones are under the tent, stay there partly because of the fabulous music, partly because they'd be drenched the moment they tried to exit the tent. The grass is squishy super saturated - I am up to my ankles in water as I stand in it.
By the time the Tremé Brass Band sets up, thunder and lightning are on the way, sanity will surface when the promoters tell us the festival is canceled and to head for shelter inside the brick U. S. Mint (now a museum) immediately for our own safety. We do that.
Shortly after John Boutté and band end their set, The beloved Tremé Brass Band takes the stage.
Three songs later, the show is cancelled. The torrential rain has won this round. Street flooding begins.
Two inches of rain in the cement
Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
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