New Orleans Jazz Festival canceled amid surge in COVID-19 cases in Louisiana

The music has died in New Orleans, at least for October, as the nation's rising number of Delta variant cases has led to the cancellation of one of the city's biggest annual attractions next to Mardi Gras.

Organizers on Monday announced the cancellation of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, citing in a post on the festival's website, "the current exponential growth of new COVID cases in New Orleans and the region." It is the second year in a row the annual music festival has been snuffed out by the pandemic.  Headliners for this year's event — which usually draws half a millions visitors to the Crescent City — were to include musical artists and bands ranging from Stevie Nicks and H.E.R. to the Foo Fighters, Nora Jones, Elvis Costello, Wu-Tang Clan and Jon Batiste. In a tweet on July 24, the festival announced the addition of the Rolling Stones, for which it had added an unprecedented extra day to the two-weekend event, which earlier this year had been rescheduled for October from its original dates in spring.