Festival Events

Join acclaimed local author and storyteller Ariadne Blayde for an immersive twilight walk exploring the dark local history and lore of the historic French Quarter, considered one of the most haunted districts in America. Learn about true crime, yellow fever, pirates, ghosts, and the city’s fascinating colonial history through visits to the Quarter’s most haunted places, including the infamous LaLaurie Mansion, the historic Mississippi riverfront, New Orleans’ oldest and most haunted bar, and more. Feel free to bring a drink!

Thursday, March 27, 5:30 – 7:15 PM; Friday, March 28, 5:30 – 7:15 PM; Saturday, March 29, 7:30 – 9:15 PM; and Sunday, March 30, 5:30 – 7:15 PM.

A critically acclaimed deep dive into the queer underbelly of New Orleans from lesbian street gangs in the sex industry to drag queens under the direct employment of the mafia to the rise of modern gay nightclubs in open rejection of the laws. With no censorship and no shame, follow the stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people who were instrumental in the creation of modern New Orleans, building whisper networks from the first days of the colony and eventually, taking over the streets.  A radical challenge to mainstream queer history and New Orleans history, the tour is a love letter to the New Orleans queer community with equal parts joy and heartbreak. Tours will be led by Quinn L Bishop.

 Thursday, March 27; Friday, March 28; Saturday, March 29; and Sunday, March 30; Times are all 1 – 3 PM.

For some authors, New Orleans has been a place that freed them to become the writers we know. Tennessee Williams said, “In New Orleans…I found the kind of freedom I had always needed, and the shock of it—against the Puritanism of my nature—has given me a subject, a theme, which I have never ceased exploiting.” Jimmy Buffet put it more simply: “You find as a writer that there are certain spots on the planet where you write better than others, and I believe in that. And New Orleans is one of them.” For others, the city itself became the subject—Lafcadio Hearn, for example, who Frederick Starr proposes “invented” the image of New Orleans that has long lured nascent writers and continues to influence the way visitors see the city. Award-winning geographer Richard Campanella has written 11  books and a multitude of articles examining the city under his microscope, always interested in how the city’s reality diverges from the popular conceptions held by citizens and visitors. There are simply too many writers associated with New Orleans to reference them all in a two-hour tour, but we will cover quite a number as we stroll through the French Quarter, starting at the Hotel Monteleone, walking downriver for a number of blocks and then circling back to end up in Jackson Square. We’ll be looking at places where writers lived or visited, where they wrote, and the locations mentioned in their work. Your guide, Dana Criswell, will include writers who are from here (e.g., John Kennedy Toole, Anne Rice, George Washington Cable, Maurice Carlos Ruffin), moved here (e.g., Tom Piazza, Richard Ford), lived here for a long or short while (e.g., William Faulkner, Walt Whitman, O. Henry, Katherine Anne Porter, Tennessee Williams) or lived elsewhere but visited frequently and used the city, to some extent, as a setting (e.g., Walker Percy, Eudora Welty, John Steinbeck).

Thursday, March 27; Friday, March 28; Saturday, March 29; and Sunday, March 30; Times are all 10:30 AM – 12 Noon.

Tom Williams was very open and candid about his life through his letters, journals and memoirs. While some of what he had to say should be taken with a grain of salt, much can be traced and verified. In the 1930s, the French Quarter was a decadent mud puddle in the gutter of Southern gentility, perfectly suited for a decadent young man. Award-winning tour guide, Randy Bibb, will take you through the French Quarter visiting the sites and hangouts of Tennessee Williams. See the buildings in which he lived, where boiling water was poured through the cracks of the floor, where a plethora of vagrants, miscreants, artists, and society girls came and went through the architecture and art of his muse, the Vieux Carré. And hear his story as he told it. Randy’s knack for double entendre presents a narrative which puts a Chinese lantern over a naked light bulb with subtle humor. Randy is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, where he lived only blocks away from the Glass Menagerie apartment. He gave his first tour in New Orleans in 1988 and his commitment to historic accuracy has earned him three Global Guide Awards from TourHQ and the Cultural Preservation Award for tour guiding from the Black Storyville Babydolls. He has served as president of the Tour Guide Association of Greater New Orleans, Inc. and teaches Professional Tour Guiding and the History of The French Quarter at Delgado Community College. Randy is also a playwright and composer; his musical play Onepiece has enjoyed six productions in St. Louis and New Orleans.

Thursday, March 27, 10 AM – Noon; Friday, March 28 – 1:30 – 3:30 PM; Saturday, March 29 – 1:30 – 3:30 PM; and Sunday, March 30, 10 AM – Noon.

This leisurely stroll through the French Quarter focuses on New Orleans’ enchanting past with an emphasis on the neighborhood’s queer history and its rich literary heritage. See where writers lived and wrote and learn about the incredible contributions lesbians and gay men have made to the city over its 300-year-old history. The tour is guided by long-time French Quarter resident Frank Perez, a local historian and professional tour guide who has written six books about French Quarter history. Perez also serves as the executive director of the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana.

Thursday, March 27, 11 AM – 12:30 PM; Friday, March 28, 3:30 – 5 PM and Sunday, March 30, 1 – 2:30 PM.