Lured by historic Rolling Stones performance, half-a-million fans attend New Orleans Jazz Fest

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An extra day and the lure of an appearance by the Rolling Stones pushed attendance at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to a half a million people, organizers said Monday.

That was the second highest attendance in the festival's history — just behind the 600,000 attendees in 2001. In 2023, more than 460,000 people passed through the festival’s gates.

“This year’s Festival presented as plainly as ever the beauty of Jazz Fest,” festival producer Quint Davis said in a statement. “Watching the Rolling Stones perform with New Orleans and Louisiana stars Irma Thomas and Dwayne Dopsie was to witness the power of the Festival to demonstrate the connection of our culture to some of the greatest music of our time.”

The historic, sold-out appearance of the Rolling Stones last week was the triumphant conclusion of a multi-year effort to bring the band to the event, after cancellations in 2019 and 2021. Few festival performances have been more anticipated, and even fewer, if any, better received by fans, Davis said in a statement.

Other 2024 festival highlights included Jon Batiste’s only-in-New-Orleans set that paid homage to the city’s piano legends, including Professor Longhair, Fats Domino and Allen Toussaint. There was also the Foo Fighters' electric return to the event as well as appearances by Chris Stapleton, the Killers, Queen Latifah, Fantasia and Vampire Weekend.

Next year’s event is scheduled for April 24-May 4.

Ron Wood, left, Dwayne Dopsie, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Steve Jordan perform with the Rolling Stones during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Thursday, May 2nd, 2024, at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

Ron Wood, left, Mick Jagger and Irma Thomas perform with the Rolling Stones during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on Thursday, May 2nd, 2024, at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

Lured by historic Rolling Stones performance, half-a-million fans attend New Orleans Jazz Fest

Lured by historic Rolling Stones performance, half-a-million fans attend New Orleans Jazz Fest

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, of the Rolling Stones, perform during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

MIAMI (AP) — Edwin Díaz is open to a change to help ignite the slumping New York Mets — even if that means losing his job as closer.

Amid a terrible start to the season in which he's blown two consecutive save chances and three of his last four, the star reliever with a $102 million contract said he would be willing to accept a different role if the team thinks that's best.

“I’m open to everything,” Díaz said Saturday after squandering a four-run lead in the ninth inning against one of the league's worst hitting teams in the Miami Marlins.

Díaz has a 10.80 ERA over his last eight appearances after serving up four homers in 8 1/3 innings.

"I want to help my team to win," he said. "That’s my main thing. If they want to talk to me about that and I feel good about it, I agree on it. I just want to win games in any position they put me."

The struggling Mets (20-25) led the Marlins 9-5 when Díaz entered in the ninth.

He allowed an RBI single by Jazz Chisholm Jr. that drove in Vidal Bruján, who led off with a double. Bryan De La Cruz reached on an infield single with one out, and Josh Bell hammered Díaz’s first-pitch slider 428 feet to straightaway center field for a three-run shot that tied it.

That was it for Díaz, who wasn’t charged with a blown save because he came in with a four-run lead. But in his past three outings he's given up seven earned runs, seven hits, three walks and two homers over 2 1/3 innings.

New York lost 10-9 when Otto Lopez singled home the winning run off Jorge López in the 10th.

Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said he's concerned about his closer's confidence. The 30-year-old Díaz, a two-time All-Star, thinks the reasons for his struggles this season are mostly mental.

“I won’t lie, my confidence I feel is down right now,” he said. "I’m making pitches. I’m throwing strikes. I’m trying to do my best to help the team to win. Right now I’m not in that capacity.

“Physically, I feel 100 percent right now. My body is not an issue. I think right now I’ve got to think about what I’m doing, trust myself a little bit more when I’m on the mound. I think I’m thinking too much.”

Mendoza indicated the team would consider moving Díaz out of the closer role to help him rebuild his confidence.

“It’s one of those things, I have to talk to the coaching staff and to Edwin,” Mendoza said, "whether we want to find him some softer spots to get him going. He’s still our closer and he will get through it.”

Saturday was Díaz’s first outing at Miami’s home ballpark since he tore the patellar tendon in his right knee there while celebrating a win for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic in March 2023.

The injury required surgery and cost him the entire 2023 season. He was baseball's most dominant closer in 2022, striking out 118 batters in 62 innings while saving 32 games and compiling a 1.31 ERA.

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Miami Marlins' Josh Bell, left, celebrates with Bryan De La Cruz (14) after Bell hit a home run scoring De La Cruz and Jazz Chisholm Jr., during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

New York Mets pitcher Edwin Díaz (39) reacts after giving up runs to the Philadelphia Phillies during the ninth inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 13, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)