Nancy Covey’s Festival Tours

White house with teal shutters and front door, surrounded by lush green trees and plants, with a brick pathway leading to the porch.
Women dressed in traditional attire participating in a parade or cultural event.
Image of three acoustic guitars hanging on a wall with artwork behind them, including a painting of a woman playing guitar and two other portraits.

Tours that aren't for tourists

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Tours that aren't for tourists

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Tours that aren't for tourists

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Tours that aren't for tourists • Tours that aren't for tourists • Tours that aren't for tourists •

Four people standing outdoors around a table with cooked crawfish, smiling and holding crawfish, in a green park with trees and a wooden building in the background.
Four people sitting outdoors, smiling, with musical instruments, in front of a light blue door and window with shutters, on a porch or patio.
People on a boat in a swampy area with large trees draped in Spanish moss and green water covered with duckweed.

Louisiana Music Tour 2026

New Orleans, Jazz Fest & Cajun Country

April 22-30, 2026

Cajun Country Only

April 27-29, 2026

After 40 years of leading unforgettable trips into the heart of Cajun Country, this looks like our final one… “The Last Two-Step Tour". Join us for an experience you'll treasure forever.

Trip Highlights

Intimate Musical Moments

  • Kick off your adventure in New Orleans as Jazz Fest fills the city with energy!  Enjoy free days to dive into this incredible festival’s amazing music as well as regional food & art.  Your days are free to explore and soak in the music & atmosphere of America’s most exciting, soulful city!

  • Share a traditional Cajun Crawfish Boil with legendary Cajun musicians at Marc & Ann Savoy's private farm  

  • Dance the night away to the music of Zydeco powerhouse Geno Delafose at a delicious down home BBQ 

Culinary Discoveries

  • Master authentic Cajun cooking techniques with Chef Patrick Mould

  • Savor homemade gumbo at the historic Maison Madeleine overlooking Lake Martin's lush shores

Cultural Immersion

  • Drift down quiet, cypress-filled bayous steeped in generations of Acadian traditions & history where moss hangs like lace from ancient trees

  • Enjoy personal connections and behind-the-scenes access impossible to arrange on your own

This is more than just a tour! It’s a truly immersive invitation into the spirit of Louisiana and the Cajun Country—authentic music, incredible food and unmatched hospitality that will stay with you long after you return home.

Learn More

A Different Kind of Travel Experience

The idea for Festival Tours was born during my time as Concert Director of McCabe's, the iconic Santa Monica music club. That role took me to festivals and far-flung destinations to discover great musicians and talk them into playing my beloved club—though truthfully I never needed an excuse to travel!

Those trips sparked lifelong friendships with musicians who have opened their hearts, homes and communities to me for decades… and now YOU get to come along with me!

So I flipped the concert model- instead of musicians traveling to the venue, I take you to where the music comes from!  Musician friends become your cultural guides and oftentimes you will often find yourself welcomed into their homes for authentic, intimate experiences you simply can’t find anywhere else.

I research and lead every moment of my tours because sharing is still my greatest joy. If you’re ready to travel up close, unscripted, from the inside out, I’d love you to join me on the next great adventure!

Nancy

Cajun Country on 60 Minutes

Every year, our Cajun Tour includes a crawfish boil with some of the best Cajun musicians in the world, at the private home of Marc & Ann Savoy. The whole Savoy family and so many people you will meet were recently featured in a segment on 60 Minutes!

A woman with blonde hair and glasses smiling, holding a coffee cup, standing in front of a wall decorated with framed photographs of various people.

Nancy Covey is a concert, festival and cultural music tour producer, presenter, and curator.

Renowned as concert director and talent booker at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica during the heyday of the L.A. music scene, Covey gained fame by showcasing folk, jazz, Celtic, Cajun, blues, roots and Americana musicians such as Doc Watson, John Lee Hooker, Emmy Lou Harris, Los Lobos, Etta James, T Bone Burnett, Mose Allison, Clifton Chenier, Van Dyke Parks, Bill Monroe, Richie Havens, Loudon Wainwright III, Odetta, and hundreds more.

More About Nancy

  • "Nancy's tour is the truest experience of Cajun food and music that you can get without being a local ... and I sure didn't feel like I was on a ‘tour’!"

    Chuck Taggart, Gumbo Pages, former music programmer and DJ on KCRW, Los Angeles

  • “A trip on Nancy Covey’s musical excursions is to get INSIDE the culture. She knows all the local musicians and chefs so you get an insider’s view that cant’ be had if you’re a tourist. I’m a musician and I had a blast!”

    John Densmore, The Doors

  • "Everyone should go on Nancy's trip at least once in their lifetime!"

    Sandy Miranda, host of "Music of the World", on KPFA-FM, Berkeley, California

  • “Nancy’s trips have a real spirit of exploration and adventure. She takes you to amazing places tourists never go. We made contacts and new friends and did so many things that you just couldn’t do on your own.”

    Henry Kaiser, musician

  • "It was largely Nancy’s energy and vision as concert director that transformed the 150 capacity room from an out –of the –way “folkie” joint in the back of a guitar shop into one of Southern California’s hippest venues.”

    Robert Hillburn, Los Angeles Times

  • “Nancy Covey was to her 150 seat domain what Bill Graham was to the Fillmore.”

    LA Weekly

  • “Two years later, we’re still celebrating the reverberations of this mind, body, and soul- stirring trip. Thanks again Nancy Covey for hammering it all together for us! Are we lucky or what?”

    Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times