Abbeville, Louisiana’s 5000 Egg Giant Omelette Celebration - Saturday
Magdalen Square
November 6th and 7th, 2010
http://www.giantomelette.org/
Louisiana is a piñata full of festivals. On any given weekend, give the piñata a wack and you’re rained upon by more weekend festivals than you can shake a stick at - or in one case, an 8-foot long omelette paddle.
In the past month alone there’s the Frog Festival in Rayne, The Swine Festival in Basile, The Audubon Swamp Festival in New Orleans, The Wooden Boat Festival, Madisonville, The Rice Festival in Crowley, and The International Acadian Fest in Plaquemine. There were dozens more.
“You’ve got to do down to Abbeville this afternoon and hear Steve Riley and The Mamou Playboys. They’re playing at the Giant Omelette Celebration,” a friend tells me.
Say what? I can figure out Louisiana’s connections with rice, wooden boats, pigs, even frogs from my days of reading Mark Twain, but omelettes. Giant ones?
I’ve spent the morning at the Café des Amis in Breaux Bridge dancing to the powerhouse band of Leroy Thomas and The Zydeco Road Runners. It’s 1 PM. In this part of Louisiana, that means there will be a dozen more places I can go to dance within a 45-minute drive. Abbeville is about half hour away.
Finding the location of a festival around here is easy. Drive to the center of town and roll down the window. Chances are you’ll hear the thump thump thump of a bass guitar or the cheerful peals of an amplified accordion. Park the car. Use your ears as a GPS and within minutes, you’re in the thick of the action. Worked perfectly in Abbeville.
Magdalen Square in the center of Abbeville is alive with arts and crafts booths, food tents with fried or sugary treats. High school moms are holding bake sales for upcoming trips or sports teams, and up there on a flatbed trailer are Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys.
This is so Louisiana. Riley’s squeezing his button box accordion for all its worth on a makeshift stage at one of the four corners of Magdalen Square. The Mamou Playboys are the most highly decorated Cajun band down here, maybe down anywhere. Most of the songs they sing are in Cajun French, many date back to the late 1700s. Men, you haven't lived till you've held a woman close, her eyes closed, and felt her breath graze your cheek as she softly sings the lyrics to a sweet waltz.
The smell of fried sausage floats down from a nearby concession. The beach chair brigade has set up in the usual perimeter. Merry makers dance in the street in front of the stage. The mid-afternoon sun does everything but keep time - we’re in shirtsleeves.
Like most of the festivals down here, this one spans the weekend. Posters proclaim that an omelette of Guinness Book proportions - using 5026 eggs, big enough to feed the town - will be prepared and cooked right on the adjacent street tomorrow.
This I’ve got to see. I'll be back tomorrow.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
You will find LSU fans in every public event in Louisiana.
Citizens are proud of their history - it's the main reason this festival is held every year.
There will be outdoor dancing in Magdalen Square every month. This is Louisina, remember?
pt with Patsy Hebert. For years, she was the author of "The Patsy Report," the indispensible weekly guide to music and dancing in Louisiana.
My pal Gus (spelled with one "s", he tells me to tell you) having fun with Patsy Hebert.
This I've got to see. I'll be back tomorrow.
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