Welcome To Music Box Village New Orleans' Magical Performance Venue

New Orleans may be famous for its jazz clubs, but the coolest spot in town to hear live music is far from the French Quarter, and instead in what used to be a steel fabricator’s yard in the Bywater neighborhood. There, Music Box Village sprawls in all its vaguely trippy glory, crammed with shanties and tree houses that surprise visitors by emitting music when they open the doors or tap on the walls.

This fun house of sound grew out of a public art project from New Orleans Airlift, an arts organization dedicated to increasing civic engagement with art by staging experimental public art. In 2011, the Airlift worked with a group of local artists and musicians to create a “symphony of musical sculpture” in an empty lot in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood. The concept was so popular that it’s still around—now formalized in a permanent Music Box Village.

Visitors can explore the premises for hours, finding endless unexpected delights in the way that the village creators have rigged everything up to surprise their sense of sound. For instance, a sliding door to a pagoda is rigged up to a steel string, guitar slide, and an amplifier, so if guests think that they’ll simply be passing through a door, they’ll have to think again. Visitors can also talk into a payphone, which then throws their voices across the campground thanks to a hidden array of microphones and speakers. Wind chimes in one shed are tuned to play particular musical notes as the breeze hits them.

Not just an exploratory museum of sound, the space is regularly used for concerts as well. Headliners include everyone from classical orchestra ensembles to bluegrass and jazz bands to young, local singer-songwriters. Some musicians have even recorded albums on the site. And whereas traditional performing spaces require silence during performances, the way that the organization constructed Music Box Village makes that impossible. When people open and close the doors or step on the floorboards, there may be a steel guitar sound, or a foghorn, or a cricket chirp, and this means that no two performances will ever be or sound the same—not to mention it makes for an additional challenge for performers.

https://www.instagram.com/p/2fDxaSMz3e/?taken-at=748453667
So the next time you’re in New Orleans, after making the requisite stops at Café du Monde and strolling the streets of the French Quarter, slip away to an old lot in Bywater and prepare to be enchanted.

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.