New Orleans Tickets: Seats at the Dome, Clubs, Stage

By the Reserved Seat editorial teamUpdated October 1, 2026How we research

New Orleans from the Air- High rises of the Central Business District — Photo: George Bannister, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Upcoming events in New Orleans

Dates and live ticket listings appear here as soon as they are on sale. The guide below covers what to know before you buy.

Do you need a reserved seat in New Orleans?

For the big rooms, yes; for most of the music, no. The New Orleans Saints (NFL) at the Caesars Superdome, the New Orleans Pelicans (NBA) at the Smoothie King Center next door, the restored theaters on Canal Street and the major festivals all sell assigned seats or passes ahead of time. The clubs work differently. Live music is a nightly habit here, played in rooms of a few hundred people where you often pay a cover at the door and stand.

So the decision has two parts. For a game, a theater show or a festival, choose your section with care, because those dates sell out or rise in demand as the event nears. For a club night, choose the street and the band, and keep the evening flexible.

Reserve ahead: football in the dome (the Saints, the Sugar Bowl, the New Orleans Bowl and the Bayou Classic), Pelicans basketball, Broadway tours, Jazz Fest and Essence.
Often walk-in: Frenchmen Street clubs, many Uptown shows and small comedy nights.

Superdome and arena seats, level by level

Caesars Superdome

The dome opened in 1975, took the Caesars name in 2021 and seats 73,208 for football, with room to expand to 76,468. Its levels stack in three bands:

Plaza (the 100 level): the lower bowl. Sideline Plaza seats are the most sought-after for Saints games.
Loge (the 200s and 300s): the club levels along the sidelines, with the amenities and the demand to match.
Upper deck (the 500s and 600s): the lowest rows of the 500s are the smart compromise between view and demand. Climb into the 600s and the field shrinks below you.

The fixed roof means no rain delays and no sun side, so judge a seat only by angle and distance. National events cycle through regularly: eight editions of the Super Bowl (the latest, LIX, in February 2025), WrestleMania 34, and the college football title game for the 2019 season, played in January 2020.

Smoothie King Center

The arena, called the New Orleans Arena when it opened in 1999, seats 16,867 for basketball. Its NBA tenant relocated from Charlotte in 2002 under the Hornets name and became the Pelicans in 2013. Lower-bowl seats on either sideline are the premium; upper-level corners still show the whole court and are under less demand pressure. For arena concerts (capacity about 17,971), the side sections of the lower bowl balance distance and sound, and anything behind the stage is either tarped off or listed as limited view; the listing will say which.

Theaters, halls and clubs: what to buy and what to skip

The Canal Street theaters

Saenger Theatre (opened 1927, about 2,600 seats) came back in 2013 after Hurricane Katrina and books Broadway tours and concerts. Front-center orchestra commands the most demand, yet the opening rows of the mezzanine (the first balcony level) frequently give an equal view for less.
Orpheum Theater, a 1921 hall of roughly 1,500 seats, is where the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra performs. A hydraulic floor lets it switch between raked seating (sloped rows) and a flat standing floor, so check which setup your show uses.
The Joy Theater started as a 1940s cinema on Canal; today about 1,200 people fill it for DJ sets and touring bands.

The Mahalia Jackson Theater

In Louis Armstrong Park at the edge of Tremé, this 2,100-seat hall is shared by the city's opera company, its ballet association and visiting Broadway productions.

Music clubs

Tipitina's, Uptown on Napoleon Avenue since 1977, takes its name from a Professor Longhair tune. Roughly 800 people fit inside, and it is the most famous stage in town for brass bands, funk and rhythm and blues. Ticketed shows here are worth buying ahead.
Preservation Hall, a French Quarter institution founded in 1961, keeps traditional jazz unamplified in an intimate space. Sets are short, so pair it with dinner or another club.
Frenchmen Street, just downriver from the Quarter, became the strip residents chose over Bourbon. Expect a modest cover or a one-drink ask at many doors, with a new band every few hours.

Deciding at 9 p.m.? Head for the clubs. The arena and the big theaters tend to be spoken for well before show night.

Stand-up and improv around town

Comedy runs on two tracks: touring headliners in reserved-seat theaters and arenas, and a homegrown scene of improv and club showcases.

Touring names play the same theaters and arenas as concerts, so start with the Saenger and Smoothie King Center calendars. Seat advice is the same as for a concert there.
SPORTS DRINK is a café by day and comedy club by night; the tourism bureau singles it out as one of the few rooms in the city that qualifies as a real comedy club. Lineups mix residents with comics passing through.
Big Couch, a 75-seat Bywater theater on Desire Street, focuses on improv: performances, workshops and open jams.
Comedy nights pop up at the Howlin' Wolf in the Warehouse District, at Carrollton Station and at NOLA Brewing, ranging from curated lineups to open mic sign-ups.

Local comedy seldom needs booking far out unless a festival or major convention has filled the city. A touring headliner often plays a single night, so buy that early.

New Orleans through the year

Football months, September into January: the Saints, then the Bayou Classic between Southern and Grambling State the Saturday after Thanksgiving, then the two bowl games.
October into April: Pelicans basketball.
January into February or March: Carnival season. Twelfth Night (January 6) opens it, and the heaviest parade days are the final five leading to Fat Tuesday, a movable date that can fall anywhere from February 3 to March 9.
Spring: the Jazz & Heritage Festival, known as Jazz Fest, spreads across two consecutive weekends at the Fair Grounds horse track; in 2026 that meant April 23 through May 3.
Independence Day weekend: Essence, the culture-and-music festival that has called New Orleans home almost every summer since 1995, with nighttime concerts inside the dome.

Here the calendar moves prices more than the matchup does. Stack a home game on top of a large convention or a parade weekend, and rooms and seats both get scarce at once.

Streetcars, rideshare zones and parade-day detours

Most visitors stay downtown, and from the Quarter, the CBD (Central Business District) or the Warehouse District you can walk to the dome, the arena and the Canal theaters.

Streetcars: four RTA routes operate (St. Charles, Canal, Rampart-Loyola, Riverfront). The Loyola segment, added in 2013, has stops at the Union Passenger Terminal and on Julia, Poydras and Canal, which leaves you a few minutes' walk from the dome and arena. Canal cars drop you by the theaters. Fares work through the Le Pass app.
Rideshare: for 2025 Saints games, drivers met riders on a geofenced stretch of Poydras (Loyola to Carondelet). The location can shift by event, so confirm it that day.
Parking: the dome's own garages take no cash and go mostly to season-ticket holders when the Saints play. Everyone else should book a downtown garage before arriving.
Uptown and the Marigny: Tipitina's means a rideshare, or the St. Charles car and a stroll. Frenchmen is close enough to walk from Quarter hotels.

Carnival parades shut down long stretches of the St. Charles and Canal routes for hours at a time; leave very early for anything on a parade day.

Bases, bags and booking order for visitors

For the dome and arena: the CBD and Warehouse District have the nearest hotels and plenty of places to eat. Ticket holders congregate pregame in Champions Square, right next to the dome.
For the theaters: hotels along Canal Street, at the edge of the Quarter and the CBD, put the Saenger, the Orpheum and the Joy within a few blocks.
For the clubs: guesthouses in the Faubourg Marigny suit visitors who will spend most nights on Frenchmen Street or at Big Couch. Tipitina's sits Uptown near the Magazine Street restaurants.
Book in the right order: hotel rooms are the scarce item during Jazz Fest, Essence and the last weekend of Carnival, so lock in lodging before tickets.
Prepare for summer: June through September brings heat and storms. Bring water and shade for outdoor festival days; indoors at the dome and arena, the air conditioning does the work.
Bags and tickets: as of the 2025 season, the dome applied the league's clear-bag rule to Saints games: a transparent bag no larger than 12 x 6 x 12 inches or a gallon-size freezer bag, plus a small clutch. Non-NFL events can differ. Load mobile tickets before you reach the gate. See the Superdome's plan-your-visit page for current rules.

A 100% guarantee covers every Reserved Seat order, a real comfort when the date is a playoff game or a sold-out festival weekend.

Frequently asked questions

Where are the best value seats at the Superdome?

Look at the first several rows of the 500s. Plaza sidelines and the Loge clubs draw the heaviest demand, and the top of the 600s is a long way up.

Is the Saenger mezzanine a good seat?

Often. The first mezzanine rows can match the sightline of front-center orchestra, the theater's priciest area.

Do Frenchmen Street clubs sell tickets in advance?

Usually not; you pay at the door. Ticketed concerts at Tipitina's, the Joy or the Saenger are a different story and should be bought early.

When is Jazz Fest held?

It spans two weekends at the turn of April and May at the Fair Grounds; in 2026 the dates were April 23 through May 3.

How do Mardi Gras parades affect event travel?

Heavily, in the last five days before Fat Tuesday. Parade routes close major streets and divert streetcar lines, so build in a large time cushion.

Where can you see improv in New Orleans?

Big Couch, a 75-seat theater on Desire Street in the Bywater, runs improv shows, classes and jams.

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