Stevie Nicks and her polished, sturdy band Rock the Orleans Jazz Fest 2026

A few notable changes for this, Stevie's last scheduled show so far in 2026.

• She changed the top portion of her outfit something she hasn't done for the last number of years.  likely because it was an outdoor show and warm.
• She changed up the setlist, adding Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" along with "New Orleans".
• She brought out the tambourine, something she hasn't played in a long while, not since she fell and hurt her shoulder.

Stevie Nicks conjured a big crowd and a rainbow at Jazz Fest 2026 with Tyler Childers, Nas

BY KEITH SPERA
Nola.com
Photos David Grunfeld

In the mathematics of Jazz Fest, Stevie Nicks + Tyler Childers + Saturday = a huge crowd.

That equation was evident to anyone stuck in the blocks-long line that snaked down Fortin Street outside of the Fair Grounds on Saturday.

And it was evident to anyone who hoped to show up at the last minute to see Nicks close out the main Festival Stage.

She drew one of the largest crowds in 2022, and she played Saturday to the biggest crowd so far at the 2026 Jazz Fest. It was one of those Jazz Fest crowds that takes on a presence and personality of its own. It created gridlock on the walking path coming from the food area and overflowed onto the dirt track. A sightline to glimpse a distant video screen was the best late arrivals could hope for.

Nicks demonstrated that she is not ready to go gently. She and her polished, sturdy band didn’t just play the hits. They played with the hits, adding extra flourishes and roughing them up a bit across the last hour of her set.

At Jazz Fest in 2022, she dedicated “Landslide” to the Foo Fighters’ recently deceased drummer, her pal Taylor Hawkins. This time, she dedicated it to her vast audience. Waddy Wachtel, a collaborator with Nicks and many other rock stars going back to the 1970s, accompanied her on acoustic guitar. She stretched out and held the final “snow” in the “snow-covered hills” line, her voice as perfectly burnished as ever.

She ducked out of view for a moment to “go get another cape.” The musicians welcomed her back for “Gold Dust Woman.” The sprinkle that was dusting the rear of the Festival Stage crowd — the crowd was so big, it’s entirely possible it wasn’t raining up front — started falling in bigger drops. The band extended passages of “Gold Dust Woman,” rocking it up with big thumps on the drums, cymbal splashes and jagged electric guitars.

Nicks has evolved into an onstage storyteller in recent years, prefacing many songs with charming anecdotes. On Saturday, she recalled how poor she and then-paramour Lindsey Buckingham were when they first moved to Los Angeles. She waitressed and cleaned houses to help make ends meet.

After they joined Fleetwood Mac, their fortunes changed — and her mom informed her that she needed to start paying taxes. Which was a roundabout way of getting to “Gypsy.”

She disappeared for another cape change, giving Wachtel and company an opportunity to lock into a long, grungy intro to “Edge of Seventeen.”

“We might see you again today,” she said as the band exited, which was her Stevie way of indicating an encore was forthcoming. That encore opened with “New Orleans,” a lesser-known composition of hers that she dusts off for local shows.

The next song, she said, “has lots of hope.” It was one she hadn’t sung in a while.

It was “Don’t Stop,” from Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 opus “Rumours.” Written by the late Christine McVie and originally sung by McVie and Buckingham, “Don’t Stop” lofted out over the Fair Grounds as a rainbow appeared overhead. She played a tambourine for the first time since she broke her shoulder a year ago.

Earlier, Nicks shared that “I often think, at times like these, what a great job I have.”

She’s still very good at it.

Fleetwood Mac's Don't Stop

Stop Draggin My Heart Around

Landslide

New Orleans

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