Sure, the live music and the finger-lickin’ craft barbecue might be the first things that leap to mind when you think about fall in New Orleans, but what outdoor live music event would be complete without a carefully curated gathering of local artisans and crafters set up right alongside?
You’ll find them at the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival, which will include around 20 highly-regarded, local artists and crafters when it returns to Lafayette Park, October 11–13. In the festival’s colorful Arts Market, attendees get to meet and chat with local and regional makers of fine artworks, home furnishings, and hand-crafted jewelry and decorative arts.
“I'm looking forward to the music. I’m looking forward to the food. I’m looking forward to being a vendor and selling some of my art." - Shaun Aleman
New Orleans-born-and-raised artist Shaun Aleman was a vendor at the very first Blues & BBQ Festival. He’ll be selling his paintings, prints and catching up with old friends when he returns to this year’s event again.
The Arts Market includes around 20 artists and crafters.
“I'm looking forward to the music. I’m looking forward to the food. I’m looking forward to being a vendor and selling some of my art,” Aleman said.
Aleman’s work is a perfect fit for a blues festival. While he does paint on traditional canvases, Aleman also applies his regionally specific designs to drums, toy pianos, musical instrument cases and more. He’s got a few special pieces planned for this year’s Blues & BBQ, including a homemade cigar box guitar featuring a portrait of blues artist Samantha Fish, and another featuring New Orleans blues legend Little Freddie King, who will headline the Camp Street stage on Sunday at this year’s fest.
With the festival fast approaching, participating artists are putting in long hours preparing for the market. Annie Odell, a regular Blues & BBQ arts market vendor and self-confessed night owl, has been staying up until 2 am piecing together ribbons and fabrics to create a Mardi Gras Indian wall hanging to offer for sale.
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“I'm going to be working late,” Odell said. “It actually is hard preparing for a show because now I need so many purses and so many glasses cases and so many this and so many thats.” Odell’s craft business is called Fit To Be Tied, and as the name suggests, she specializes in making purses, skirts, dresses and more using recycled neckties.
While the necktie line has become her calling card, Odell ventures into all kinds of upcycled art, too. From fiber wall hangings to okra Christmas ornaments, to crawfish shell earrings, she’ll have it all on display at the Blues & BBQ Festival.
“It's a lot of fun to get the reactions and the smiles that people have when they see my stuff,” Odell said. “I wouldn't say my art's traditional, but I have a good time making it, and I think most people have a good time looking at it, too.”
To see a full list of 2024 Blues & BBQ Festival craft vendors, click here.
