With the Rolling Stones headlining, half a million attend New Orleans Jazz Fest

An extra day and the lure of an appearance by the Rolling Stones pushed attendance at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to a half a million people, organizers said Monday.

That was the second-highest attendance in the festival's history — just behind the 600,000 attendees in 2001. In 2023, more than 460,000 people passed through the festival’s gates.

"This year’s Festival presented as plainly as ever the beauty of Jazz Fest," festival producer Quint Davis said in a statement.