Saturday, February 27th was unofficially Bernie Sanders Day in the city of New Orleans. The city held not one but two musical fundraisers in support of Senator Sanders’ presidential run, as well as the NOLA March for Bernie. The march ended at 30/90 on Frenchmen Street, where New Orleans Musicians for Bernie Sanders, a group including Brian Stoltz (The Funky Meters), Russell Batiste, Billy Iuso, Claude Bryant, Smokey Brown, Marc Stone, Joe Krown (Joe Krown Trio), Janna Slasaw, Laurie Lehner, Josh Paxton and more. The show was cover-free but donations were encouraged.
The Maple Leaf Bar hosted Bern Fest, which brought Bernie supporters and music lovers to the beloved bar for one of their famous crawfish boils and an amazing lineup of musical acts including Sam Price Duo, Eric Benny Bloom & Gemini, Smoke ‘n Bones, and Pirate’s Choice. With bellies full of crawdads, New Orleanians supported Sanders by getting funky, of course.
Musicians included Eric Benny Bloom (Lettuce, Pretty Lights, Sonic Bloom), Luke Quaranta (Toubab Krewe, Pirate’s Choice), Billy Franklin (Smoke N Bones, OTRA), Khris Royal (Khris Royal & Dark Matter), Sam Price (Honey Island Swamp Band, OTRA), Raja Kassis (Antibalas, Pirate’s Choice), Terrence Houston (George Porter Jr. & Runnin’ Pardners, Toubab Krewe), Max Moran (Donald Harrison Jr., Neospectric), Sam Dickey (Benyoro, Pirate’s Choice), Cliff Hines (Mike Dillon Band), Kyle Roussell, Thomas Glass, Doug Dietrich, Kyle Sharamitaro, Kyle Cripps, Amy Trail & more. Profits from the event went to the Bernie Sanders campaign.
Check out the full gallery from Bern Fest below:
