Almanac Life: Bourbon Street – New Orleans

 

 

I’ve walked Bourbon Street in the French Quarter many times during my regular visits to New Orleans for JazzFest over the past dozen years or so, and it is a street I know well.

 

1: Looking down Canal  2: Intersection Bourbon Street and Canal

 

And, like many who visit this wonderful city, I was shocked and dismayed by the appalling act of violence that occurred there a few days ago, but in a sense, I am not surprised. America can be a very violent place. You can feel an undercurrent festering beneath the surface as the disenfranchised vent their frustrations and anger for the position they are in. I suppose it was only a matter of time before an extreme act of violence finally eventuated in New Orleans in the manner that it did in those early hours on New Year’s Day.

 

Bourbon Street is one of the best known streets in the world. Pilgrims flock from all over the world to visit this pivotal part of the French Quarter. Attracted by the vibe, the music, the food, and the cultural impact on the development of jazz and the evolution of New Orleans,  a good time is guaranteed for all, especially at night, and particularly during special events such as Mardi Gras and Jazzfest.  It’s where people congregate and meet up to celebrate and have fun, or as they say in The Big Easy – to ‘laissez le bon temps rouler’ – to let the good times roll. 

 

Night activity along Bourbon Street

 

Bourbon Street is filled with bars, buskers, sleazy clubs, and people. It provides revellers the opportunity to drink alcohol in the street, the only restriction being drinks must be in plastic containers. There is non-stop entertainment readily on offer; on the street and off the street all awaiting your participation and for your desires to be fulfilled. Something for everyone. It’s also a place for showing off!

 

The narrowness of the street is attractive to revellers. It enables everyone to get up close and friendly with whoever they like regardless of gender, race, sexuality or origins as the scene is always set for one big party.

 

Bourbon Street at night is not for me though – you do it once then keep well clear. For me it’s too crowded with too many hustlers and panhandlers (great American word!) trying to take advantage of you and cad a dollar or two from you. It can be overwhelming with so much happening at any one time, and it’s certainly a place where you need to keep your wits about you, but for many it is a place to let your hair down. 

 

Knowing how crowded Bourbon Street can be, and the narrowness of the street, there are very few places to seek refuge if a vehicle is hurtling towards you at speed. You have little chance of escape. The carnage resulting from the act of violence appalled me.

 

I’ll be be in New Orleans and staying in the French Quarter as I always do for Jazzfest in a few months time, and I cannot help but wonder what the effect will be on the city as the enormanity of the act finally sinks in.

 

My thoughts are with the people of New Orleans at this terrible time, but one thing is for certain, the people of New Orleans will never succumb to such atrocities.

The music will play on, the Second Lines will form, the umbrellas will wave, and handkerchiefs held high will be twirled, and everyone will dance.

 

The spirit of New Orleans lives on, and the good times will return.

 

 

More from Col Ritchie can be read Here

 

 

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