It's being called Jesus, Justice & Jazz.
But you might call it a fellowship of foot traffic. Some 37,000 folks are in New Orleans for the 2009 Evangelical Lutheran Youth Gathering through Saturday.
And, some 24,000 of them are teens, who'll be doing community service work here through Sunday.
Attendees will walk everywhere. "They are a walking group," says Mary Beth Romig, with the Convention and Visitors Bureau. "So they'll be walking in the early morning hours from their hotels to the Convention Center, Superdome or a location in the French Quarter where they'll dispatch to do community service work."
Attendees will work on 154 community service projects while in New Orleans.
Listen to Don Ames' conversation with Romig:
"Every afternoon they'll be walking to the Superdome. And, in the evening, they'll be walking to their hotels," says Romig.
They'll also have some free time to explore city. "There will be large pockets of youth and chaperones walking and it may hold up traffic a bit," Romig says. Motorists are being asked to be patient and make the visitors welcome.
They'll be easy to spot, though. All will be wearing bright orange T-shirts.
"It is safe to say that this is one of the largest conventions we ever hosted in the city. It's definitely the largest since Katrina," says Kelly Schulz, also with the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Typically, the largest meetings in New Orleans do not exceed 30,000 attendees.
The church's event will also give the city an economic boost during the summer months, typically a slow time for tourism in New Orleans.
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