The Natchitoches Jazz/R&B Festival which is scheduled to be held on the downtown riverbank on April 13th &14th, in addition to over 20 musical groups performing on four different stages, the Festival is featuring something new and unique to the riverbank: Reserved Seating.
The Jazz/R&B Festival Committee has previously disseminated information giving details of the seating arrangements and costs, but according to Reserved Seating Co-Chairman, Lisa Prudhomme, there is still a lot of confusion out there about how to it’s all going to work.
“Everywhere I go,” said Prudhomme, “people are asking me to explain to them about the reserved seating. We anticipated that it may be confusing simply because it’s new and different.”
Here are a few facts which may better explain the reserved seating:
1. On Friday night, April 13th, there is no reserved seating. All tickets are General Admission.
2. General Admission tickets for adults for Saturday, April 14th, are $30.
3. Reserved seat cushions in the amphitheater for Saturday are $40 (only $10 more than General Admission).
4. Reserved padded chairs in the amphitheater for Saturday only are $50.
5. No personal chairs will be allowed on the bottom portion of the riverbank in front of and adjacent to the main stage.
6. Personal chairs will be allowed in limited areas at street level on top of the hill on a “first come, first served basis.”
7. Personal chairs will be allowed at the three side stages and some chairs will be set up and provided for the public at those stages.
8. Children may sit in their parents’ laps in the reserved section and will not be charged for a reserved seat. However, if they use a seat, then they will have to pay full price. (Of course, this is true for any concert or sporting event you attend.)
“When we decided to put on a musical event of the magnitude for the people of our area to enjoy, we knew two things: that it was going to cost a lot of money, and that we would have to utilize every square inch of space available because of the crowds who would attend,” said Prudhomme.
“We can’t have personal chairs on the lower riverbank because there is simply not enough room,” Prudhomme continued. “One chair takes up the same amount of space as three or four people standing. That means that you can put three to four times the number of people down there standing than you could if you allowed personal chairs. We are going to need that space.”
Prudhomme cautioned that the reserved seats are selling fast and that people should not wait hoping to get one on the day of the show. Oh, we fully expect them all to be sold out prior to the show,” she said. “There were only just over 500 total reserved seats to begin with and nearly half of the chairs have already been sold.” Prudhomme believes that the tickets to the Festival are a great value for the concert-going public.
“Our top reserved seat ticket price is $50 which gets you a fantastic seat to see Starship, Ohio Players, Rick Derringer, Maggie Rose, and many others,” Prudhomme continued. “To put this in prospective, Starship performed by themselves in Bossier City earlier this year and the tickets for that concert were $50.”
For ticket information and full schedule go to http://www.natchjazzfest.com
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One other thing: Last week some volunteers worked very hard and presented The Cane River Film Festival. There was FREE local live music on the stage all afternoon. There were vendors and kid’s activities. There was.a FREE screening of “Steel Magnolias” on a huge screen that evening. It was well promoted. The weather was spectacular.
Guess what? Almost no one showed up. It was extremely disappointing.
Last spring and summer, the city presented several FREE downtown concerts complete with fun games and activities for the kids. Again, very very few people showed up.
Lets see how many folks purchase tickets and come to the Jazzfest.
I am a little confused. Sorry! I bought 2 VIP tickets so are you saying this does not include anything for Friday night as far as seats or anything? We were also told that it did not include a chair for Saturday. Does this mean we just stand in our reserved front row spot? Someone said we had to pay $40 more for a chair after already paying $200. Please help me understand. We are really more interested in Friday performers and will be disappointed to find out No Place to sit. I love this event but sure hoping thus is not so.
Pamela, first of all, thanks for your ticket purchase! All reserved and VIP tickets are Saturday only as is set forth on the website. Friday night is all general admission and are $20 for adults. There’ll be open seating in the amphitheater.
The VIP tickets gets you access to the VIP area to the side of and in front of stage. There will be some limited general seating in the VIP area.
For reserved seats in the amphitheater in front of the stage, you would need to pay an additional $20 for reserved chair or $10 for a stadium cushion.
This is set out In specificity on our website.
If you have further questions, please send a message via our website or Facebook page.
See you at the Festival!
How come VIP tickets won’t get you in on Friday too. The price is double the reserved price without a seat.
stand on front street and listen for free,the locals are being gouged same
as Christmas festival.
Once again, this is a non-profit organization made up of volunteers. All monies collected go to putting on the Festival. When there is money left over, which is rare, we give it to charity.
Like any concert or festival anywhere, folks can choose to go or not go.
Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to convince the bands to play for free. We volunteers have to raise money by soliciting donations and selling tickets.
If folks aren’t willing or able to pay for the tickets. We understand. It sucks. But judged from our advance ticket sales, there ARE a lot of folks out there willing to pay to bring quality entertainment to our town.
For a little perspective, Paul McCartney played Bossier a few months ago, and the tickets were like $200. I REALLY wanted to go and take my family, but just couldn’t afford it. So I didn’t go.
Further perspective: Starship played in Bossier around the first of the year and tickets were $50. We’re offering Starship and 20 other bands for as little as $30. PLUS kids 12 and under can get in FREE for general admission.
So, with all due respect, I’m not sure where the “gouging” comment comes from.
We truly hope you can attend the festival, but if not, the city offers many, many free events during the year.
Also, we’d welcome you to volunteer on our committee next year.
Thanks for your interest!
OMG ! Instead of bringing more people in to your town , you are slowly running everyone out finding more ways to get into the people’s pocketbook . What about a family with two or more children or people on a limited income , they can’t come enjoy the day , music and food for these extras cost . Think someone needs to rethink this !
So, let me get this straight, I can pay $10 more to sit on a cushion or $20 more to sit on a chair in front of the stage? I think I will just forgo either and sit on the concrete lip. How about that? Or is the entire amphitheater now reserved seating only? I don’t believe the citizens of Natchitoches were ever told they would have to pay extra to sit in the place they once could sit for the price of general admission. While the refurbishment is beautiful the area in front of the stage has been reduced, no chairs are allowed and if people are standing in front of the seating area I wouldn’t what to be the person paying extra to sit in the first couple of rows to watch the back of peoples heads. I’m calling BS on this; once again the wants of a few elitist out way the best interest of the many in Natchitoches. I guess we are just so lucky to have a few intelligent people looking out for our poor ignorant selves.
Harold, thanks for your thoughts. You make some good points. As you may not be aware, the Jazzfest is not run by the City but by a group of volunteers who give countless hours away from their families and businesses for no other reason than to put on a quality concert for the folks in our area.
The overwhelming majority of the feedback over the years has been positive and has been that folks would like us to bring big-name entertainment to our community.
To so it takes money, and a lot of it. Since we are a non-profit, we depend largely on ticket sales and the generosity of our sponsors and NOT on City or other public funds.
The new amphitheater allowed us to set up for reserved seating and that anticipated increase in revenue has allowed us to put together what we believe will be The Greatest Weekend of Music in Natchitoches History.
We simply could not do it without those seats.
There are many great events throughout the year which are free of charge, and of course, we hope you’ll choose to attend Jazzfest.
Harold, you are obviously a thoughtful person with strong opinions and just the kind of person we need on our committee. We’d welcome you To be part of our committee.
I must warn you, however, be prepared to work your butt off for no money and little appreciation.
Hope to see you at the Festival!
Okay, I may just take you up on it! Music is Life!
Harold. You are a fool. They are RENTING the space from the city for a PRIVATE concert. It would be no different if a concert promoter rented the space for a concert. The city isn’t putting it on. IT IS A PRIVATE GROUP. You are correct in the calling yourself ignorant part though.