VENUES
We were very fortunate that most of our venues sustained minimal damage and will be able to host our events.
Main Dance Venue
Our main dances will be Gallier Hall. Built by renowned local architect, James Gallier, Sr. between 1845 and 1853, Gallier Hall served as New Orleans' City Hall for approximately 100 years. In the years since then, this national historic landmark has served as a reception hall for countless balls, dances, parties, weddings, and other special events.
This building has also seen its share of more somber occasions. It was (and still is) customary for important people in Louisiana history to lay in state at Gallier Hall - in the distant past, Jefferson Davis and General Beauregard, in the more recent past, New Orleans music legends Ernie K-Doe and Earl King to name a few.
On Friday and Saturday night, the Main Dances will be held on the hardwood floors of the entire second floor of Gallier Hall.
After Hour Venue
Club 300, located on Decatur Street in the French Quarter is one of the city's newest music clubs. Equipped with a second story terrace and bar area, the venue will provide for plent of dance space, and hang-out space.
Other Venues
Cafe Brasil in the Marigny
Just a few blocks from the French Quarter, Frenchman Street in the Marigny is by far, the city's hottest spot for live local music. From Snug Harbor to the Spotted Cat, the four block strip features some of New Orleans hottest jazz bands. Sunday night we wrap up our final dance on the slick marble floors of this musical anchor.
The Band Stand at Audubon Park, Audubon Park New Orleans
The site of both our last and first exchange, the Bandstand at Audubon park is located smack dab in the middle of one of New Orleans nicest parks.
Pat O'Briens
Pat O'Briens is our meeting place before we head off to Bourbon Street and the "Blow Out". Enjoy one of their famous Hurricane's, and take a seat in their piano bar.
The French Quarter
New Orleans is a seductress
- a gracious old beauty, totally comfortable with her years, who knows full
well she still has the power to entice and enchant. Situated in the crescent
carved by a lazy, outward curve of the Mighty Mississippi, the city, like the
river, is passionate yet placid; sociable yet nonchalant; insouciant yet dignified.
Less proper than Charleston, less Southern than Savannah, New Orleans shares
with these two seasoned belles a love of fine food, good company, and graceful
architecture. But where Charleston and Savannah may worry about what the world
thinks of them, New Orleans is not afraid to show her petticoats, especially
if it means she's having fun. This lighthearted attitude has endowed New Orleans
with several soubriquet - The Big Easy, The City That Care Forgot, and of course,
the motto "Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez" (Let the Good Times Roll).
Perhaps nowhere is this joie de vivre more evident than in the oldest part of the city -- The French Quarter, or Vieux Carré, which literally means "old square." Established in 1718 by the French as a military outpost to protect their interests and provide a port for commerce, the mile-square Vieux Carré spent the first half-century of its existence as a decidedly French settlement. Unlike the English colonies, which were often populated by dissidents hoping to distance themselves from their mother country, the original citizens of New Orleans proudly embraced and celebrated their French heritage, often sending their children to school on the continent.
When New Orleans was acquired by the Spanish in 1763, the French settlers accepted their new Spanish cousins with a reasonably minor amount of revolt and bloodshed. It was from this melding of the two cultures, combined with a generous sprinkling of African influences from the slave population, that Creole society and cuisine were born. (The "French" architecture for which the Quarter is famous is actually Spanish, the entire city having burned in 1788 and much of it again in 1794.) France and Spain shared boundaries and social customs, so their citizens lived in relative harmony, but when the United States made the Louisiana purchase in 1803 and New Orleans became American, Mon Dieu! Pas Possible! At that time, a physical and spiritual separation began, with the newly created Canal Street as the boundary, that would last over a century and would further insulate the French Quarter from the bustling city around it.
In time, the Creoles expanded beyond the Quarter as well, across and down Esplanade Avenue, far from the boisterous Americans, but the Vieux Carre remained the heart and soul of New Orleans - a quintessentially European experience that has lost little of its old-world character and appeal despite the ravages of time and the influx of visitors that descend upon it.
Today, the French Quarter is a world of narrow streets and historic houses, where profusions of tropical flowers peek from hidden courtyards, the mingled aromas of garlic, onions, fresh-baked goods and coffee gently scent the breeze, and a vibrant cacophony of music, conversation, and laughter infuses the atmosphere with the promise of excitement.
To fully appreciate the Quarter, one should view it as its Creole inhabitants did (and still do) - through its fine food, elegant architecture, sublime music and mysterious rituals. The French Quarter possesses a proud and magnificent heritage that residents and visitors alike can enjoy.