Using technology inaugurated at last summer's Macintosh New York Music Festival, the site will employ roving PowerBooks to capture and transmit music, photos and video clips from the New Orleans concerts and jams. In addition, Web visitors will be able to join in the festivities with customized chat and Internet phone software from Quarterdeck, the site's sponsor. These are impressive options for people who can't make the trip to New Orleans, but serious fans will want to experience this year's typically strong festival lineup—the Allman Brothers, B.B. King, Wynton Marsalis and Van Morrison, among many others—in person.

The site has much to offer apart from technology, including a strikingly effective design inspired by the 1996 festival poster. (The festival's posters have become real collector's items, and you'll find 20 years' worth of them on display here, along with photos from previous years. Editor's Note: unfortunately, the site's current incarnation does not provide items from previous years.) The site has performance schedules and ticket information, as you would expect, along with information on the festival's food and crafts, both authentic attractions in their own right. Other pages, some still under construction at the time of this review, will offer additional New Orleans-related links. (Try N.O.net in the meantime.)

If you can't visit the Big Easy next week, make sure you visit the Jazz & Heritage Festival site—it's easily the next-best thing.

(Reviewed April 22, 1996)