That Saturday will herald a new era of music on a street not known for its nightlife. Yvonne Landry, owner of the Box Office, has pushed to get live music on the street since City Council loosened zoning restrictions for new businesses in November 2007. Since being named an Arts and Cultural Overlay District, Freret Street has seen the opening of new restaurants and bars, including a new cocktail lounge, Cure, and the Box Office.

The overlay still restricts bars from being opened past midnight on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends. Landry was unhappy with the midnight curfew because New Orleans is not traditionally an early evening type of town, but the Box Office at La Nuit is connected to Landry’s other venue, La Nuit Comedy Club, a 50-seat comedy theater.

“If it looks like we’re going to do well,” says Landry, “we can move into the theater and stay open until an hour after the latest show, so that may be what we have to do.”

The Box Office’s interior looks like your buddy’s living room. There’s a pool table, a rattling air conditioner, and more worn-out couches and comfy chairs than there are bar stools. But there’s one thing missing here—cigarette smoke—which was a selling point for musicians.

“All the brass bands, they have horns. They need their lungs,” Landry says. “Almost nowhere in New Orleans is smoke-free and we’re completely smoke-free.”

A schedule of acts was announced then retracted as Landry and her booking agent had a falling out, one that led to some speculation about the future of the club. Landry asserts that the Box Office will have live music, though, and the Panorama Jazz Band’s Web site says it will play September 7. “It’s happening,” Landry says. “We’re going to be a music venue.”

Thought festival season was over? Not so fast. Three staples of Louisiana culture—the Creole tomato, seafood, and Cajun and zydeco music—will come together once again for this year’s Vieux-To-Do. The two-day event will be held on Saturday and Sunday, June 13—14, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and it will bring together three festivals: the French Market Creole Tomato Festival in its 24th year, the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival, and the Louisiana Seafood Festival. These three distinct festivals became a trinity of Louisiana culture by happenstance only two years ago.

“That first year (2007), it was accidental that we were together,” says Scott Aiges, director of programming for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Foundation, which presents the Cajun-Zydeco Festival. That year, the stages and seafood were at the U.S. Mint on Esplanade Avenue, which borders the French Market.

“After the event, we realized that not only did we have a hugely successful event, but the tomato festival had also had one of its most successful ever. We resolved that we would take this collaboration and make it purposeful and not accidental,” he says.

All events are free and open to the public and will be held exclusively at the French Market. Music stages and seafood booths will no longer be found at the U.S. Mint; instead, they’ll be located at Dumaine Street and Barracks Street on the flea market grounds. The Creole Tomato Festival will be in the Performance Pavilion at Dutch Alley.

This synergy of Southern Louisiana food and music brings tourism to the city during summer months not traditionally known for large festivals. It provides an opportunity for consumers from inside the city and out to buy local and support Louisiana’s farmers and fisherman in the process, according to Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Marketing and Promotion Board.

“Each group by itself would be a lot weaker,” says Smith.

Kenneth Ferdinand, executive director of the French Market Corporation, says that Vieux-To-Do will be an opportunity for people to see the French Market completed. After years of renovations, as part of the revitalization of the flea market and farmer’s market, all areas of the market are finally open.  This is the highlight of the festival, he says. The music is another.

Zydeco music has long been a part of the culture of Southwest Louisiana. Recently, with the institution in 2008 of the Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album category at the Grammys, more people have taken notice. This year’s lineup boasts of two Grammy winners, BeauSoleil and Terrance Simien, and three nominees, the Pine Leaf Boys, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, and the Lost Bayou Ramblers.

Between sets, Creole Tomato dishes will be demonstrated at the Performance Pavilion in Dutch Alley. Chef Jack Martinez of Dickie Brennan’s will start the day Saturday from 12 until 1 p.m.  Chef Nino of Rouse’s will end the festivities on Sunday from 4:30 until 5:30 p.m. Other culinary greats will create unforgettable dishes throughout the weekend with tomatoes from St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and Livingston parishes—tomatoes that, according to Byron Hughey, co-founder of the Creole Tomato Festival, will taste this sweet for two months only.

Chef Paul Prudhomme, whose famed Cajun cuisine helped boost the popularity of Cajun and zydeco music in the ’70s and ’80s, will return to the Seafood Festival this year, where he’ll be joined by chefs from the Redfish Grill, Saltwater Grill, Emeril’s NOLA, the Bourbon House and others.

The festival has brought people from around the world, the region, and the state, according to Ewell Smith. Smith says it might be about the size of the French Quarter Festival 25 years ago, but he believes that this is a great start and its future seems secure.

Scott Aiges agrees.

“There are dozens and dozens of artists that are out there working in the zydeco realm that are definitely worth having on the show,” he says. “I don’t think we’re in any danger at all of running out of fresh talent.”

As long as those sweet tomatoes keep growing in the summer, fisherman keep catching their catch, and kids continue to pick up that dusty accordion in the garage, a New Orleans Vieux-To-Do will greet us each June for years to come.

Each song is a self-conscious ode to a time when people danced without irony. The music itself makes no grand statements. That would be too explicatory in an inexplicable world of human tunnels and monstrous projections of Jack Russell terriers (a video accompaniment). The dancing men with beards wearing neon headbands and short shorts are not here for a thesis on post-modern music. That’s why they left their laptops for the night.

Deacon’s songs find themselves through meticulously constructed percussion and synthesizers, with less of the pretension or procrastination of art rock. These songs make you want to dance and, maybe, participate in some corporal architecture. Some of them sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks swallowed your Nintendo; others like Ennio Morricone discovered the synthesizer.

After the body tunnel has broken apart, Deacon fans scramble back into the auditorium to resume gyrating and pumping their fists in the air. One guy without a shirt falls over. A girl, also shirtless – though the bra remains – stands on a chair. Most of them are without shoes, too. Bottles and cans litter the rugs.
Last time I was here, Ralph Nader was pushing for a three-party system in American government. He had to ask for applause at appropriate points. Tonight, our keynote speaker could tell the audience to do anything, and they would.

“Raise your hands in the air,” Deacon says. “Now open them wide. Now put one hand on your side. Now get down on one knee. Thank you.”

All of this seems to be executed in mimicry of some evangelist catharsis or, maybe, in mockery. Yet there is something religious about it. A flickering, multi-colored mountain peak graces the screen behind the band. The ensemble wears matching white body suits – the prophets. They play deep, almost soulful rhythms on loop that encourage even the most timid listeners to finally run in, remove their New Balances, and sweat it out with the others. And as Deacon starts in on the final song, I too begin to toe my right heel with my left foot – it’s time to flail about, I mean, to dance.