by Sarah Esenwein

Once the Mardi Gras hangover wears off, New Orleaians gear up for a near-constat barage of festivals celebrating the spirit, sights, sounds and art of the city. Quickly becoming a strong thread in the fiber of this culture is the annual Young Leadership Council (YLC) and New Orleans City Council concert series, Wednesday at the Square. Click through for this year's schedule.

One of the city’s most popular springtime gatherings, this free concert is more than ear candy. It’s a time for thousands of New Orleans locals and visitors to move and groove, eat and drink as well as support local artisans and the young professionals dedicated to building leadership and improving the quality of life in New Orleans.

“The annual Wednesday at the Square concert series is one of the countless examples of how the future leaders of our city are working together to give back and contribute to making New Orleans a thriving community,” said New Orleans City Council President Stacy Head.

Starting March 6th, and running every Wednesday, this 12 week concert series will fill Lafayette Square (between Camp Street and St. Charles Avenue in the Central Business District) with live music, an Artist Village featuring handcrafted glass art, jewelry, ceramics, photography, apparel, paintings and much more.  Of course no party would be complete without local food vendors serving crowd favorites and beverages for you to happily imbibe in.  

This year’s schedule will include several well known performers such as Bucktown All-Stars; Col. Bruce Hampton; Irvin Mayfield with special guest Kermit Ruffins; The Mother Hips, The Revivalists; The Meters Experience featuring Leo Nocentelli; Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk; Billy Iuso & Restless Natives; Westbank Mike; and Marcia Ball.

Here's the full schedule of performers:

March 6 Anders Osborne, Colin Lake Band

March 13 Bucktown All-Stars, Park Row
March 20 Col. Bruce Hampton, Andrew Duhon
March 27 Marcia Ball, Jenn Howard
April 3 Irvin Mayfield and the Jazz Playhouse Revue with Special Guest Kermit Ruffins, The New Orleans Jazz Institute's Saturday Music School
April 10 Mother Hips, Jon Roniger
April 17 The Revivalists, Disco Demolition Knights
April 24 Eric McFadden with Bernie Worrell, Luther Dickinson, Eric Bolivar and Robert Mercurio; Dave Jordan Band
May 1 The Meters Experience f. Leo Nocentelli, Chris Mule & The Perpetrators
May 8 Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Mahayla
May 15 Billy Iuso's Restless Natives, N'awlins Johnnys
May 22 Season Finale (TBA), Westbank Mike