Big Night New Orleans

This review is for 2021! I wrote it and forgot to post, oops!I had a blast at the Big Night New Orleans Bash! I received a VIP ticket complimentary as a Yelp Elite Perk in return for volunteering for the event. I think buying the tickets can be quite expensive, but volunteering for a handful of hours was worth it!This is a huge event with over 2000 tickets sold. It can get pretty packed too even though the venue is huge with tons of rooms available. If you do get tickets, I would spring for the VIP ones with seating.They had tons of entertainment - magic shows, burlesque dancing, musical performances, as well as DJs with all kinds of music. With something different going on in every room, everyone is bound to find something they enjoy!The food and drinks were pretty good too. The lines for the food though were quite long, but you can enjoy a show while you wait in line, so no biggie! They had carving stations, veggies, carbs, desserts, etc. With it being all you can eat, I ate a ton of food!It was a fun way to start off the new year! I'd love to go again!!

Yelp had an awesome deal with Big Night where we worked giving our wristbands for three hours and got a VIP ticket to the party. Awesome deal!The VIP ticket definitely made a big difference. A nice place to sit, good tables, and a great buffet for food and top shelf bar. The food was good even though the carving stations were cold. That cornbread dressing is my new favorite thing. The music was good, the performances were great, and the champagne toast at midnight was awesome. Confetti everywhere and everyone celebrating 2022 ringing on in! They also had fake gambling going on where I was able to "win" at Blackjack.

Pretty pricey, but full disclosure I was given a VIP ticket so I can't really complain. This is my second year attending BNNO, and I have to say if I do buy tickets next year, VIP is worth it having had both VIP and regular entry. Instead of fried bar-type food (jalapeno poppers, arancinis, jambalaya) you get a real buffet of things like roast beef and turkey, salad, broccoli, mashed potatoes, and desserts. The alcohol is of a higher shelf, and there is more swag. But the big bonus is a place to sit. If you have regular tickets there is narry a place to camp yer kiester for 3+ hours, save the toilet. I also will say there were some absolutely terrible people in the VIP section who were "reserving" multiple tables and stealing/hoarding the party favors that the event staff just allowed to do whatever they wanted. My silver wristband was just as good as theirs and that's not how these things work. It was like that jerk that shows up to the pool at 6am and "reserves" like 15 chairs by themself. Nope, nope, nope. I loved handing out my swag to the non-VIP peeps later in the night-- they definitely appreciated it more than the elitist people behind the velvet rope.But overall the bands were fun, the burlesque was raunchy, and the alcohol was flowing, so we had a good time. Shoutout to the 610 Stompers-- I never tire of seeing your tight short shorts and knee high socks. Overall a spanking good time and I'd love to do it again.

This is a tricky review. Let's start with my rating. 4-stars would mean I would buy a ticket next year and this isn't the case. 2-stars would mean I didn't have some fun. 3-stars it is. The Hyatt is a beautiful and strange hotel. The staff is terrific but it's pretty hard to find your way around. I ran into a young woman who was in tears because she couldn't find the lobby. I'm serious.The event gets really mixed reviews from me. We attended as VIPs. The party is in a few different areas and rooms of the hotel. They give you a line-up guide and schedule but I think the website could have been a little more helpful in some areas. I didn't know that there would be VIP dining in ALL of the rooms. I really wanted to hear one band that went on at 9:15 but ended up in another room at that time because I was under the impression that that's where the VIP dining was. I was hungry so I ended up missing most of her set.The sound was fine in that room but others were way too loud. We wanted to hear brass-a-holics but the sound was so distorted and loud it literally hurt my ears and we had to leave. That was one of the only two acts we wanted to hear all night so we really were 0 for 2. The lighting was similarly terrible and in your face for some reason. The 610 stompers were dancing and I couldn't see them because the lights were shining right in my face. A great addition to the evening but this wasn't great.It's not my age group overall. This is a mostly 20s-30s group mixed with some folks from out of town who are staying at the hotel and decided they had nothing better to do. That's what it seemed like to me. This is sort of why it's tricky. Would I have thought this was awesome if I were 25 again? I think it would be true only if I was there with a bunch of friends maybe.The food was excellent. The general admission food wasn't interesting but the VIP food was really well done. The turkey and beef carving stations were handled by inexperienced staff. They were hacking them up badly. You can't preslice this stuff and leave it out on the boards to dry out waiting for customers either. I got there very early so mine were nice. The salads were great and the sides were similarly well prepared. I liked the truffled potatoes, green beans, broccoli and the corn bread dressing. Good dessert station. The cheesecake and Mississippi Mud cake were my favorites. Not sure about the bread pudding. The fun attention to details with the party favors were a plus. Flashing glasses and stuff that lit up that you could wear was nice. The hats and beads were fun too. There was a lot to like overall. I think that's why there are mixed reviews posted so far. Thanks for having me. We did have fun!

Full disclosure; my husband won VIP tickets for this event. And I think that's the way to go; not velvet rope VIP, which separates you from what's going on to some extent, and not the cheapest tickets, unless you like eating appetizers for dinner. VIP tickets get you access to the full buffet right in the middle of the action. You can eat and listen to Amanda Shaw, and the bar is a big step up in quality. Unlike other Yelpers attending in previous years, I did not encounter a line at the bar. There was a line for food on the 3rd floor, but when we went downstairs to listen to Amanda Shaw, there was no line at all at the buffet. Perhaps ticket sales were down this year. The music line up is pretty good, although the sound was not good for The Brassaholics...too loud and somewhat distorted. The highlight for me was the 610 Stompers hitting the dance floor, but they need to turn the lights around so they're not shining on the crowd. The party favors were fun, and I liked the photo booth and gaming tables. Service was good, although there were some folks on the floor who could not answer questions. We were trying to get to the lobby at one point (this hotel is large and not all escalators hit all floors. It's really confusing), and the woman we asked who was actually stationed at an escalator and appeared to be there to answer questions could not answer us. She wasn't employed by the hotel, but was event staff. A little training would go far here. I also wish they had trained the people at the turkey and roast beef carving stations, as they made a mess of the meat carving. If you're visiting New Orleans, this event doesn't really feel like being out on the town. That can be great of you've already done that, but somewhat of a let down if you want to be in the thick of it.

Multiple stages in different rooms. Open bars. Lots of happy peeps. Seems like a grand ole time. It was a great time but there was a ton of people that attended. Thousands attended this event. The bars were overwhelmed even though the hotel staff promised there would be little to no lines at the bar. So in order to get a drink you had to wait in line 15+ minutes.Anywho the party was rather fun. I was able to see the 610 Stompers perform as well as Cowboy Mouth and another band. The party ended way too early (1:30am) for my liking though. Like we were ready to party till lunchtime. It's New Year's people. Live a little. Don't kill a party at 1:30am.So I would recommend this New Year's Eve party to those who 1. Don't drink much (because you are not going to be able to get too many drinks with those long lines) 2. Go out early (event started around 9p) 3. Those who want a variety of bands. At the end of the day my friends had a blast so that's all that matters!

So for the VIP level tickets you got a decent selection of food and drinks generally but the logistics of this event are run pretty poorly. They opened the Will Call for the tickets early in the afternoon of New Years day so I went right at opening to stand in line to pick up my two tickets/armbands and when I finally got to the end of the line they wouldn't give me the tickets as everybody getting an armband has to be present... Ok so never have I ever had that experience in New Orleans EVER EVER for any of gazillions of events like this I've attended but I guess "public safety" or something similarly nefarious was afoot and I expected to find some version of Robespierre lurking about. Well later when I had my complete party assembled and descended back upon this event at the exact time of the opening there was zero line and it was easy to grab the armbands and proceed immediately to the milkings/drinkings/eatings so I guess to moral of the story is early planning gets you exactly negative results here so just show up exactly on time for better results. So on finally entering the event it is a bit of a long series of rides up and down escalators and curving around to finally arrive at the event space. There were already lines forming at the food and drinks so obviously I went and stood in line for a drink first and VERY oddly when I finally got to put my order in they ONLY had ONE kind of beer which was one of the big major commercial boys light beers and they told me that the non-VIP drink table probably had more beer so I bounced over there and true enough they had a large selection of appropriate beers to choose from. This all seemed rather odd but I later learned there were more VIP bars to select from and all the others were far better equipped with beer.The food in the VIP area was turkey and a nice steamship of beef for the main carnivore events I was interested in and then they had some other side dishes, desserts and pasta. The non-VIP food was some sad looking jambalaya, fried cheese balls and fried boudin balls that I wouldn't recommend to most folks. The VIP food would rate a solid three stars while the non-VIP food would rate a one star on my scale. The first VIP food area I found myself in had no seating left so it was standing room to eat only. Later I also discovered that there were other rooms with VIP seating and food which were wide open with no lines and plenty of space to sit. The entertainment options were also like the food and bars spread out among multiple rooms. There was a burlesque event, bands and a performance by the 610 Stompers. All of these events seemed to really happen fast and transition from one performance to the next quickly. the space available to really get up near to see the performances was also a bit limited and got crowded fast. Overall I think this experience could have been really improved with better logistics. A map with a schedule of the events would have been quite useful for this event so you could know of all the various locations and times of the various performances along with the various eating areas and bar locations. Ensuring all the bars were properly stocked also would have been a really great idea. Proper project management should have been implemented to fully utilize all the energy that went into the event planning and execution of this event and that clearly seems to have been lacking from my experience. This event could be fun and while it seems to be mostly tourists you do get a decent selection of a variety of entertainment options along with plenty of food and drink for your New Years experience here.

Definitely not worth the money, but if you decide to go, pay for VIP tickets. Otherwise, you will end up with limited options and no seating the entire night. We paid for the "Velvet Rope VIP" experience. This was a big waste of money as the generic buffet we had was not worth the significant difference in price or the early entry. Also - the VIP section is all one big area, so if you stayed at the restaurant to eat you missed out on scoring a prime seating spot in the VIP section because there was actually NO difference for the velvet rope ticket holders. The website talks about the exclusivity of seating at the event...news flash - it is the SAME space as the much cheaper version. Save your money to spend on an actual restaurant in New Orleans and either a) don't go or b) don't pay beyond VIP. The event staff were clueless and had no idea about what it meant to be Velvet Rope (or what was playing in their own section). The VIP section in the Elite 1 Ballroom was in the back and you couldn't even see the show from its location. It was so dark in some areas you couldn't tell what food was available. The logistics needs a LOT of work for an event that has been annual for some time. Incredibly disappointed and would not recommend traveling to attend the event.

Very disappointed with the entire event!! It is a waste of money if you purchase the Velvet Rope package. The service, food & alcohol selections at the in 8 Block resturant was not worth extra money you pay. Once we arrived in the rooms after the "buffet" at the resturant we asked were our reserved seats were. The staff were clueless as to what the Velvet Rope package was and said it was general seating. If you ate dinner at the resturant, by the time you finished there were no seats even near the performances. Even then... when you sit down you can't see the stage. People were sitting on the tables around the reserved seats blocking the view. The premium party favors were a joke and didn't even say happy new year. They were branding for Crown Royal and Ciroc. Also, there was no confetti or balloon drop at midnight. Dont waste your money!

Disclosure: I won tickets to attend this event.What's even better than starting 2015 off with a review about Big Night Out? The party was actually a lot of fun - I was pleasantly surprised how organized the check-in process was (we had tickets at Will Call and got dropped off around 8:50 pm for the 9 pm event). It seemed like the staff was prepared for the soon to be big rush of people. Even though we were there a few minutes before the party started, everyone was ready and the event coordinator did not make us wait until 9 to go inside.We first explored the bars upstairs and samples a hurricane, lemonade, and purple potion, I am very picky about my alcohol so I quickly threw the drinks away after sampling and decided it will be a beer night.I don't think Blue Moon was included in the general admission but I found one bar that was serving it to the non-VIPs which made me super happy!I would go to this event again - only if I could get the most inexpensive tickets and if the bands were good. This year we saw the 610-stompers, Cowboy Mouth and the Brass-a-holics.