Festival International de Louisiane: Dispatch4
Wednesday evening April 27, 2011
The temperature is 91 degrees F and the sky is clear as I drive to downtown Lafayette…a perfect night for dancing, eating, celebrating the first night of Festival International de Louisiane. Six bands will play on two stages tomorrow, then watch out…Friday, Saturday, and Sunday scores of bands from across the world will play at six stages in the downtown festival area.
Tonight, the food and drink stands in the compact downtown Lafayette area are open, the merchandise tents are filled with goodies. Horace Trahan and The Ossun Express are playing Cajun style music at 6:30 then L’ll Nathan and the Zydeco Big Timers hit the Scene Malibu Stage on Jefferson Street stage at 8:15. Downtown is beginning to buzz.
One minute after beginning to thread my way to the big stage with the mega sound system, dance area, I bump into Claire, the Lafayette teacher I met on the plane from Dallas. And a few yards later, Chantelle Trahan, who’s making a video of her husband’s show. The crowd is relaxed, the beer is cold, and all is well with the world.
Horace Trahan is a special performer He reaches out to the audience with his lyrics and his patter. He’s happy to be the first entertainer to kickoff the festival and hundreds of dancers keep filling the asphalt dancing area in front of the stage while the non dancers are parked in chairs behind the dance area and a huge standing audience is behind that, listening, heads and butts wiggling, plastic cups of beer are and cans of beer with those skinny foam holders encasing them . Hey how you doing? Asked by half the people I jostle by, people Ive never seen before, friendly and welcoming, a reminder that Im in a very special part of the world.
Claire and friends
Chantelle Trahan making video of her husband's set
This is as uncrowded as the asphalt dance floor got all night.
Horace is a message singer. When he sings his original "Keep Walkin’" he’s talking about the journey over the hurdles of life. If it were a Sunday, he’d be mistaken for a preacher. He reaches out to a youth audience. “You can do better than us,” he says, then invites his young son to sing the final chorus with him. The kid is a natural, and sings it out with conviction. The crowd warmly applauds and appreciates the message.
Ever generous, Horace points out his mom, his dad, his sisters in the audience then sings a Clifton Chenier bluesy style song in memory of a relative.
The Festival is an all ages event...
and the entire street is packed by the time L’ll Nathan and the Zydeco Big Timers play until 10 pm.
pt and Claire
Food is inexpensive and darn good...
Buying Festival merchandise - pins, shirts, mugs,jewelry, CDs, posters - is one of the ways people underwrite the event. It's free and the amount of entertainment is awesome
Such fun reading about the festival Paul 14 years after we were there. It is such a generous event. I remember Ricardo Lemvo and his Makina Loca real well - did you see him. Looking forward to the next blog.
Chris McArdle
Posted by: Chris McArdle | May 02, 2011 at 10:04 PM
Generous is the right word, Chris. This was five days of world class entertainment for zero dollars, zip... FREE.
I didnt see that group but did see groups like Élage Diof from Senegal and The Master Drummers of Burundi. I even volunteered Thursday night at one of the hospitality tents!
Posted by: Paul Tamburello aka pt at large | May 02, 2011 at 10:26 PM
Generous is the right word, Chris. This was five days of world class entertainment for zero dollars, zip... FREE.
I didnt see that group but did see groups like Élage Diof from Senegal and The Master Drummers of Burundi. I even volunteered Thursday night at one of the hospitality tents!
Cheers
Paul
Posted by: ptatlarge | May 02, 2011 at 10:42 PM