Uptown Swingers second-line returns to Freret Street for 10th anniversary on Sunday

To celebrate their 10th anniversary second-line, the Uptown Swingers will parade this Sunday where they all originally started: on Freret Street. “Some people said we couldn’t last 10 years, so we’ve got to show them,” said Uptown Swingers president Ezell Hines. “Showing is seeing and seeing is believing.” The Uptown Swingers were formed in 2004 by Hines, a former member of the Young Men Olympians club since the 1960s who wanted to bring the joy of second-line parading to his own Uptown neighborhood in Freret. He started the group with a core group of family members including his own son and daughter and added friends from around Valence and Magnolia, many of whom played football together in Soniat Park as children.