'It's a deforestation of our culture,' neighbors fear cultural shift with live bands shut down outside Jazz Fest

NEW ORLEANS — Impromptu bands outside of Jazz Fest have been a staple of the experience for years, but this year they’re harder to find.

Neighbors say police have been shutting down the bands.

“I saw them running off brass bands, they’re running off everyone,” Stephen Welinsky said.

Welinsky and his friends at their home on Sauvage Street also got a visit from police. He tells us they had a band playing music from his yard for the last nine years.

“Small PA, not loud,” he said. “We always ended the music early.”

However, this year was different.

“They came by Thursday at 3 p.m. and they came back yesterday after we got the permit and the band was setting up and they told us the permit doesn't matter and it would have to go through them,” Welinsky said.

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The neighbors we spoke with didn’t mind and said they miss hearing the music.

"We loved walking down the street and seeing all the energy and unfortunately now it kind of dies really quickly so you don't get that same feeling of celebration,” Alana Rosenberg, who lives nearby said.

We reached out to the city and NOPD, but haven’t heard back on this particular case. City Officials did release a statement on a similar incident where a brass band was asked to stop playing though. However, unlike in this instance, the band was able to continue the show on private property.

“The City of New Orleans will always continue to support the culture and culture bearers of this city, and continually seeks to find ways to balance the performance traditions of our musicians on the city’s streets and in its neighborhoods with the wishes of all residents,” they said. “We appreciate and support NOPD’s decision to work with both the musicians and the residents to let the music continue in a new location.”

Welinsky says it’s a “deforestation of our culture.”

“I'm looking at it as what's next they're going to take away go-cups and start arresting Mardi Gras Indians or something? If we're being told we can't have music on the streets of New Orleans I don't know what the next step would be,” he said.