The place Los Angeles musician was summarizing? New Orleans.
Foster made his comments in front of a huge crowd at one of the main stages in the Jazz and Heritage Festival 2014 New Orleans, a seven-day music and cultural festival that ended May 4 in the Crescent City.
Many other artists paid tribute to the Big Easy with their own verbal love notes between songs.
The next day, at another stage, Montreal Win Butler, lead singer of Arcade Fire, made a similar point when he told the crowd that New Orleans is "one of the few places in the United States is at your own place.”
In a country passed homogenization, New Orleans is refreshing.
Not that they are not mini malls and chain stores , and it goes without saying that large swaths of the city are still in disrepair or otherwise down and out . But aesthetics is attractive in many neighborhoods, so a walk through the Garden District, Uptown or Bywater to enjoy the architecture of a nice way to spend an afternoon.
You can spend a good deal of time in the city park with benches swaying palm trees and manicured lawns. The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden in the park is free, and it’s amazing collection includes Deborah Butterfield, Fernando Botero, Henry Moore, Robert Indiana and Auguste Rodin.
And as we discovered on our recent trip, you can spend a week in New Orleans exercise without ever setting foot on Bourbon Street and the French Quarter tourist - clogged.
On our last night, we did take a walk around the neighborhood and unfortunately witnessed a 20-something drunk passed out on a sidewalk of Bourbon Street, with the spectators not knowing quite what to do. On a side street, we found some zoot cats - adapted playing craps in the street.
What does most of our attention, however, was the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival 45th to be held over two weekends at the Fair Grounds Race Track, in the residential district, 10 minutes from the French Quarter. For seven days, eight hours each day, thousands of musicians entertain visitors for a total of about 435,000 during the festival. The economic impact of the Festival of Jazz to Louisiana is more than $ 300 million, organizers said me.
This is because Jazz Fest brings music celebrity names. This year, Bruce Springsteen - he had played the festival twice before - was the main attraction. Festival producers do not release daily attendance figures, but observers say the crowds for Springsteen on May 3 records could have been.
Springsteen also performed at the Jazz Fest 2006, the first festival after Hurricane Katrina. A six-day event that year had an estimated attendance of 300,000 to 350,000.
"It was a very emotional experience, serving as a gathering of a lot of family and friends," said an official of the festival.
The Festival of 2012, also with Springsteen, had about 450,000 attendees during its seven days.
This year, Springsteen was given a period of time longer than usual and delighted fans for three hours. Other headliners played considerably shorter sets, usually leaving music lovers wanting more, it also allows plenty of time to discover new musicians.
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