You going to Voodoo? During the first decade or so of the Halloween-weekend festival, the answer for most local music fans was almost invariably yes.

In those heady years, Bingo and their fellow sideshow freaks had their own dedicated Bingo tent, trad jazz cats blew the roof off the Preservation Hall tent, and New Orleans icons like Irma Thomas were broadcast live from the WWOZ stage. Locals mingled freely with friends backstage before darting off to catch killer sets by national acts like...