Spirit of Jazz Fest unknown
The recent USA Today article “Wet and wild: That’s the spirit of this year’s Jazz Fest” did everything but portray the spirit of the event. Jazz Fest, a two-week music festival in New Orleans, has been a tradition in the Big Easy for decades, but audiences wouldn’t know that from reading the article. The writer starts the article with an anecdotal lead about the “ghost of Katrina,” a move many find very cliche. I mean, we’ve all heard about Katrina and we all know that New Orleans suffered greatly, but most people now that the city is once again thriving. After the lead the article turns into a weather report with the writer’s account of the rainy start to this years event. Finally, in the third paragraph of the article, the writer got into the music, the whole point of Jazz Fest. Descriptions about the audience enjoying the music in their ponchos were followed by more details about the rain and finally, by bullet points highlighting a select number of the artists performing this year.
I was really excited when I saw this article because of my knowledge of the famous event. But I was sadly disappointed after reading it. For a reader who knows something about Jazz Fest (me) the article was successful in highlighting some performers, but failed to mention anything about who else was there during the first week and would be there during the second week. And for a reader who knows nothing about Jazz Fest, the article failed to describe any details about the event, such as when it started, what actually goes on and other vital details. After reading the article, I found myself asking many questions that were never addressed. The article would have been much more successful had it focused less on the weather and more on the nature of the eclectic event.
