New Orleans is one of the most 'European' cities in America, drawing cultural influences from its early Spanish and French settlers (the Creole) and French migrants, exiled from Nova Scotia in the 18th century - the Cajuns. Further cultural layers are revealed in the Indian and African influences, Dixieland jazz and the rich and terrifying legacy of voodoo, brought to the city by Haitian slaves.

The biggest cultural event in New Orleans is the annual Mardi Gras, celebrated here like nowhere else on earth. Given that the French Quarter is like an ongoing outdoor party any time of year, one can only imagine what it is like when the extravagant floats and costumes are paraded through the streets and the whole world has descended in search of a good time. There are, however, plenty of choices for those in search of more sedate cultural offerings.

Listings are available from the daily newspaper Times-Picayune (website: www.nola.com/entertainment), the free monthly publication Offbeat (website: www.offbeat.com), as well as from free weekly Gambit and the monthly New Orleans Magazine (website: www.neworleansmagazine.com). Inside New Orleans (website: http://neworleans.cox.net/cci/entertainment) is an up-to-date and savvy Internet site, while Gambit's affiliated online outfit (website: www.bestofneworleans.com) also posts weekly cultural events and performances.

Tickets are available for purchase from the venues or from Ticketmaster (tel: (504) 522 5555; website: www.ticketmaster.com), which levies a surcharge per ticket.

Music: The much-lauded Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (tel: (504) 523 6530; website: www.lpomusic.com) performs at various venues. The New Orleans Opera Association will be performing at McAlister Auditorium on Tulane University's Uptown Campus, and then at the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing Arts, 801 North Rampart Street, in Armstrong Park (tel: (504) 529 36 00; website: www.neworleansopera.org) when it reopens in January, 2009. This theatre, and the Louisiana Superdome (tel: (504) 587 3663; website: www.superdome.com) located on Sugar Bowl Drive, are two of the several venues that stage large-scale concerts. In addition, the New Orleans Arena, 1501 Girod Street (tel: (504) 587 3663; website: www.neworleansarena.com), is another popular venue for concerts.

Theatre: Numerous theatres throughout the city offer everything from avant-garde works to the classics, with a healthy amount of Tennessee Williams, who lived much of his adult life in the Big Easy. The March Tennessee Williams Festival (tel: (504) 581 1144; website: www.tennesseewilliams.net), usually takes place in the French Quarter but the headquarters is located at Le Petit Théâtre, 616 St Peter Street, French Quarter (tel: (504) 522 2081; website: www.lepetittheatre.com). The theatre claims to be the oldest continuously running community theatre in the USA and shows a range of musicals and drama. Musicals, plays and multimedia events are also staged at the two-auditorium Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp Street (tel: (504) 528 3800; website: www.cacno.org).

Dance: The New Orleans Ballet (tel: (504) 522 0996; website: www.nobadance.com) performs from September to May at Tulane University's Dixon Hall. The Mahalia Jackson Theatre of the Performing Arts, 801 North Rampart Street in Armstrong Park (tel: (504) 218 0150) is the usual venue for the ballet and will reopen in January 2009.

Film: The Big Easy is perennially popular as a movie location and some of the better known films shot there are Easy Rider (1969), JFK (1991), Dead Man Walking (1995) and, of course, The Big Easy (1987). Other movies include Passion Fish (1992), Storyville (1992), Interview with a Vampire (1994), The Apostle (1997), Runaway Jury (2003), The Skeleton Key (2005) and in 2006, All the King's Men, Last Holiday and Failure to Launch. For more details, check the website www.filmneworleans.org.

To see these and other movies, there is no shortage of screens. The biggest is the Entergy IMAX Theater in the Aquarium of the Americas, 1 Canal Street (tel: (504) 581 4629 or 1 800 774 7394; website: www.auduboninstitute.org). Canal Place Cinemas, 333 Canal Street (tel: (504) 581 5400), shows first-run films, both art house and mainstream, while real film buffs will of course want to check what's on at The Film Buff's Institute, 6363 St Charles Street (tel: (504) 865 2152; website: www.loyno.edu/filmstudies), which runs during term time at Loyola University, and also shows independent and art house films.

Literary Notes: The first literary note to strike visitors is to see that there really is a streetcar named 'Desire', which prompted the title of the 1947 play by Tennessee Williams. Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Faulkner wrote his first book, Soldier's Pay (1926), while living in New Orleans in the 1920s. Another title inspired by the city is Dinner at Antoine's, the 1948 novel by Frances Parkinson Keyes. It is still possible for one to dine at the restaurant Antoine's, 713 St Louis Street.

Writers Truman Capote (1924-84) and Lillian Hellman (1905-84) were both born in New Orleans, as was the strange and sad writer John Kennedy Toole. Toole committed suicide in 1969, partly because he had been unable to find a publisher for his one great novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, finally posthumously published in 1980.

The most recent literary resident is the 'vampire novelist', Anne Rice, whose fans come from all over the world to see her city. Her best-known work, Interview with the Vampire (1976), was made into a film in 1994. She now lives in California but her New Orleans home, Rosegate, is at the corner of First Street and Chestnut Street in the Garden District.