NEW ORLEANS - The second weekend of the seven-day New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is kicking off with performances by Widespread Panic, Darius Rucker and Corinne Bailey Rae.
    
Thursday is often less crowded than the weekends and is a popular day for New Orleans-area residents to attend the festival.
    
Widespread Panic, the jam band from Athens, Georgia, is closing out the main stage.
    
Rucker, who gained fame with Hootie & the Blowfish before pursuing a solo career as a country music performer, will close out the festival's second-largest stage.
    
Festival goers needed galoshes after heavy rains soaked the area overnight.
    
But the weather is expected to be drier than last Sunday, when heavy storms soaked the area. And sunny skies are expected for the last three days of the festival.