NEW ORLEANS— Today, Band Together Productions, LLC. announced a virtual festival to take place on April 25, 2020, the original first Saturday of Jazz Fest 2020. The virtual festival will be headlined by well-known New Orleans musicians with the proceeds benefiting Orleans and Jefferson Parish musicians, befitting to the festival tagline: “New Orleans Musicians United in Rhythm, Heart and Soul”. The festival will be streamed, 3:00pm – 6:00pm CDT on www.BandTogetherBenefit.com, ALT 92.3FM, OffBeat.com as well as through local and national promotional placements on prospective media partners. Supporters can begin donations immediately on the website. All donations will be directed to the Greater New Orleans Foundation’s Band Together Benefit Fund.

The Band Together Benefit will be a 3-hour series of concerts performed by some of New Orleans' most notable talent, including Grammy- winning artists PJ Morton, Jon Cleary, and Shane Theriot, Grammy-nominated artists Tank and the Bangas and Sean Ardoin, the incomparable Ivan Neville, Stanton Moore of funk juggernaut Galactic, New Orleans jazz icon Kermit Ruffins, platinum-selling singer Cupid, and rockers Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes as well as Billboard Top 20 soul-funk band Water Seed.

Band Together Benefit organizers said, “New Orleans is synonymous with music, it’s in our DNA. Band Together is that spirit, that dance, that energy that connects all the sons and daughters of the Big Easy. We wanted to do our part to make sure that the music, joy and happiness we spread around the world survives at the start of what would have been our festival season. When times get tough we will always Band Together."

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, better known as Jazz Fest, was once again prepared to take on the weekends of April 23-26 and April 30-May 3 with a celebration of New Orleans’ culture, cuisine and, of course, music. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the 2020 festival season has been cancelled.

Don Marshall, Executive Director of The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation said, “The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation is pleased to be the lead sponsor of the Band Together Benefit Festival. With performances and concerts being cancelled, musicians are losing opportunities to support themselves and their families. For generations, the musicians of our community have provided the soul of Louisiana. It is time for all of us to come together to provide much needed support during this difficult time.”

Festival Sponsors include: The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, aos Interior Environments, Positive Vibrations Foundation, Sonic Canvas, Kevin M. Lin, the Krewe of Muses, Novelleo, Cake Café & bakery, Juan LaFonta, The Parlor Recording Studio, the House of Blues, and the New Orleans Music Economy (NOME).

Festival Partners include: Greater New Orleans, Inc., New Orleans & Company, Sound Diplomacy, City of New Orleans, Basin Street Records, Young Leadership Council, Red Hot Records, OXFAM, Fusicology, PreSonus, Friends of Lafitte Greenway, OffBeat Magazine, The Bloom Effect, Edible Schoolyard, Passage, Pyramid Audio, and Peaches Records.

The New Orleans festival season draws hundreds of thousands of visitors and locals enthusiastically celebrating the cuisine, music and overall culture of New Orleans. Many New Orleans artists rely on this time of year as a key factor of their annual revenue. The Band Together Benefit will raise funds for those artists by featuring a full-length online only concert. The goal is to supply as many applicants as possible with a grant of at least $500.00 to assist with rent/mortgage, utilities, medical needs and other necessary expenses.

Merchandise for Band Together such as t-shirts and hats will also be available for purchase on the website.

The complete lineup includes:

  • PJ Morton – Multi-time Grammy Award Winner
  • Tank and the Bangas – Grammy Award Nominee
  • Jon Cleary – Grammy Award Winner
  • Ivan Neville (Dumpstaphunk)
  • Kermit Ruffins — Grammy Award Winner
  • Stanton Moore — Drummer for Galactic
  • Nigel Hall
  • Cupid
  • Dawn Richard
  • Water Seed
  • Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes
  • Sean Ardoin — Grammy Award Nominee
  • FlowTribe
  • Glen David Andrews
  • HaSizzle
  • Shane Theriot — Grammy Award Winner
  • Elizabeth Lyons
  • Fermin Ceballos
  • Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes
  • Kelly Love Jones
  • LeTrainiump
  • Caren Green

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Media Contact:
Hyma Moore
hmoore@gnoinc.org
504-913-0551