Woke up this morning to some monsoon-type rains outside. I had little hope for the JazzFest opening on time today, and, having been on the exhibitor side of the Fest many years before, my first thought was of how much money craft exhibitors were likely to lose due to the inclement weather.

These days, however, I have a different sort of occupation that has much more personal concerns...which is where the Children's Village at the Fest comes in.

A while back, all there was for the kids was a single tent in which kid-friendly acts performed. That tent is still there, but now it is adjacent to a number of hands-on activities just right for those kids of all ages who can't stay still long enough to take in a song or two. The ones my little guy loves the most are the shack porch complete with pirogue in the front yard....

...the neighborhood cafe/cook-off kitchen, in which the kids can cook all the plastic crawfish, shrimp, and crabs they catch from the yard pirogue...

...and an opportunity to rebuild New Orleans as best as they can.

Okay, so it isn't all of New Orleans. The kids have got to start somewhere...

In the past, I got a mite disgusted. It seemed I was stuck with the kiddies and missing all the music. Last year, the kids' tent sounds were drowning out the Gentilly Stage performers nearby. This year, however, I took in some classic Marcia Ball whilst watching the little guy run all over the village catching crawfish and doing the work that those cranes a certain Recovery Czar promised to this city ought to be doing.

Requiring parental supervision of these intrepid young 'uns ensures that there is a social element to watching your kids as they decorate some Japanese lanterns at the crafts tent or try to maneuver their way through a small labyrinth. Networking with other moms and dads in this way gets me meeting folks from many corners of the earth as well as from the unexplored nooks and crannies of my own neighborhood. Topics have ranged from discussion of the blazing heat that followed the heavy morning rains, all things Fest food-related, all things Fest performance-related, talk of local schools and summer camps, and, of course, baffling and funny kid behavior.

I have found that it is only after an extended period of village antics (and with the help of a bag of roasted peanuts to munch on) that my son can take a break and listen to some music with us. He can sit in my lap in the rain and take in some of Bobby Lounge's act, say, or he can hang in the Economy Hall tent and take in some of a tribute to George Lewis with Dan, the world's biggest Dr. Michael White fan.

Sooo, I guess this is the year I stopped worrying about catching all the Fest performances so much and learned to love that Children's Village.

I still have some problems with that muddy bog that is the Fair Grounds after a heavy rain, though....