Freret Street helps revive festival season on Saturday. Here’s the music lineup.

On Saturday (March 26), the Freret Street Festival will take over the popular restaurant and entertainment corridor. The six-block street party features 18 bands music on three stages (see the lineup below). The headliners include Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, Squirrel Queen, Erica Falls and Kermit Ruffins & the BBQ Swingers.

Alongside the 46 brick-and-mortar restaurants, bars and shops on Freret, the free festival includes a food court featuring top local chefs and more than 200 arts and crafts vendors.

Plus there’s a children’s area with inflatables, a petting zoo, alligator meet and greets, arts and crafts, clowns and stilt walkers. And festival-goers can meet highly lovable dogs and cats ready for adoption.

The festival, sponsored by the Freret Street Market, began in 1998 to celebrate and promote the neighborhood; the Freret Market followed in 2007 as a means of bringing shoppers as well as prospective businesses and homeowners into the Freret corridor after Katrina.

There’s no admission charge for the festival, so make sure to patronize the vendors and businesses. It runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Here’s this year’s music lineup:

Napoleon

11-11:45 a.m. Valerie Sassafras
noon-12:45 p.m. Jamal Batiste
1:10 -2:05 p.m. Marc Stone 3 with Keiko Komaki & Terry Scott Jr. 
2:20 pm-3:20 p.m. Jamie Lynn Vessels
3:40-4:25 p.m. Hash Cabbage
4:45-6 p.m. Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band

Valence

11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Satya
12:50-1:30 p.m. N’Fungolo Siba
1:45-2:15 p.m. Sasha Gold
2:35-3:15 p.m. Dana Ives
3:20-3:35 p.m. Dance performance by NOLA Capoeira
3:45-4:45 p.m. Ann Elise Hastings & Her Revolving Cast of Characters
5:15-6 p.m. Squirrel Queen

Soniat

11:15-11:30 a.m. Dance performance by NOLA Capoeira
11:40 a.m.-12:40 p.m. Marigny Street Brass Band
1-2 p.m.  Erica Falls
2:20-3:05 p.m. Duz Mancini
3:25-4:25 p.m. Los Guiros
4:45-6 p.m. Kermit Ruffins & the BBQ Swingers