Every Sunday from late August into June, somewhere in New Orleans a brass band strikes up, a club steps out its door in matching suits, and a neighborhood falls in behind them. That is a second line — and if you have never been in one, no video does it justice.
The name comes from the structure of the parade itself. The first line is the club — the members who paid the dues, hired the band, and planned the route. The second line is everybody else: the neighbors, the cousins, the strangers who heard the tuba from three blocks away and came running. You do not watch a second line. You join it.
Each club rolls one Sunday a year, its anniversary parade, and the route is a map of the club’s world — past the founders’ blocks, the bars that held the meetings, the corners that raised the members. Stops are not random. Every one is a tribute.
The music is brass band — not performed for the crowd but with it. The dancing, the buckjumping, the footwork: all of it is participation, not performance.
The season runs Sundays, August through June. Find every club and every route right here on the schedule — then come put your feet on the street.