From its 1999 Halloween weekend debut, until the last event in 2019, the annual event was a Halloween tradition for music fans, both locally and others who travel from around the world. Throughout Voodoo’s 21-year run, more than one million festival-goers gathered to see performances from roughly 2,000 artists. The event was twice nominated for Pollstar's Music Festival of the Year, and in 2005, Voodoo founder Stephen Rehage and his team were presented with a key to the city, following the Voodoo 2005 post-Katrina event.
Creation and growth Voodoo was first held as a single-day event on October 30, 1999, at
Tad Gormley Stadium in City Park. Planned and executed by Stephen Rehage, CEO of Rehage Entertainment, the festival consisted of three stages and a mix of local and national acts including headliners
Wyclef Jean and
Moby. As the U.S. festival market swelled, Voodoo continued its growth, increasing both the festival site and musically expanding with the addition of stages and performers. During its second year in 2000, Voodoo became a two-day event, and garnered international attention with a headlining performance from Eminem in support of his debut album,
The Slim Shady LP. In 2007, Voodoo expanded to a three-day event.
Hurricane Katrina Originally scheduled for Halloween weekend of 2005 in New Orleans’ City Park, the Voodoo Music Experience was displaced by the tragedy of
Hurricane Katrina. While plans were in full swing to relocate to
Memphis, Voodoo founder Stephen Rehage met with community leaders in New Orleans about the opportunity to move the event back home for one of its two days—as a tribute event for relief workers. Festival organizers and Memphis representatives agreed this was an amazing opportunity to increase the scope of the event.
New Orleans event On October 29, 2005, an invitation-only celebration (previous ticket holders exempt) for police, firefighters, National Guard, military and countless others who had aided in the recovery efforts of the city was staged at the fly in
Audubon Park in New Orleans, one of the few public spaces in the city not damaged in the recent
federal levee failure disaster.
Nine Inch Nails,
Queens of the Stone Age,
the Secret Machines,
the New York Dolls, and
Kermit Ruffins were among the artists who came together in celebration of a city they love. It marked the first major multi-musical performance in the two months since Hurricane Katrina’s effects were felt in the city.
Memphis event Voodoo in Memphis included a fundraiser for victims of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in
AutoZone Park.
2006–2015 The 2006 Voodoo Music Experience saw the debut of three distinct areas on six stages within the festival's landscape: Le Ritual, Le Flambeau and Le Carnival. Each of these areas was designed to uniquely showcase different sides of the personality of the festival and its New Orleans home: "Le Flambeau" featured music and sounds consistent with the style of The Big Easy; "Le Ritual" featured more mainstream music; and finally "Le Carnival" featured indie bands, burlesque and circus acts. In 2007, Voodoo expanded to three days and broke all previous attendance records with an estimated 100,000+ fans in attendance. In April 2013, the Voodoo Music + Arts Experience announced an initial 15 acts to commemorate the 15th anniversary of Voodoo. The initial 15 acts include Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, Calvin Harris,
Bassnectar,
Paramore,
Macklemore &
Ryan Lewis,
Afrojack,
Boys Noize,
The Gaslight Anthem,
Big Gigantic,
How To Destroy Angels,
Cults,
Alkaline Trio,
Desaparecidos and
Robert DeLong. The 15th anniversary Voodoo celebration also marked the debut of City Park’s Festival Grounds, a new permanent home for Voodoo. Home to Voodoo since its 1999 debut—with the exception of Voodoo 2005, which was displaced by the city’s hurricane damage—New Orleans’ 1,300-acre City Park is the region’s principal recreation site that attracts over seven million visitors each year. In October 2013, a controlling stake in the festival was sold to
Live Nation Entertainment, amid growing financial issues. Rehage retained a 49% stake in the event, and became Live Nation's President of North American Festivals. The final day of the 2015 edition was canceled due to inclement weather.
2016–2022 In 2016, operations for the festival were taken over by Live Nation subsidiary
C3 Presents, organizers of
Lollapalooza and the
Austin City Limits Music Festival, with Sig Greenebaum and Don Kelly promoted to co-directors in place of Rehage. With the new management, the festival underwent changes to its stage layout and infrastructure. Attendance peaked at around 150,000. The 2020 festival was canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Although it announced plans to return in 2021, Voodoo announced in June 2021 that the festival had been cancelled and would not be held again until 2022, with no reason given. In June 2022, it was announced that the 2022 festival would not be held. ==Line-ups==