Since we had a rain out for the festival on Saturday, we decided to do the Festival International de Louisiana on Sunday. The festival is a five day event with nearly 100 different acts and it is FREE. Yes, free parking, free shuttle, and free entertainment. With acts from around the world the music includes rock, country, blues, gospel, Zydeco, Cajun and more on six stages throughout downtown Lafayette.
Nanc, Dan and Merlene trying to stay cool as the temperatures and the humidity both climbed into the 90's after Saturday's rain. The fans were very popular.
Rio Luminoso a local Louisiana band.
The fountain was really popular because of the hot, hot weather. I must say I was tempted.
There were even street entertainers preforming around town.
The Jones Family Singers offered some very bluesy gospel music.
The main stage drew the biggest crowds and included a show by Dakha Brakha, a group from Ukraine.
The headliner and final act of the festival was Louisiana's own Buckwheat Zydeco with special guests Nathan Williams, Roddie Romero and Eric Alcock. Here is a link to a short video of Buckwheat Zydeco and the crowd. It was a great ending after several days of music. We have been to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival where they had many bigger names preforming, but for a great FREE festival the International cannot be beat.
Because we were at the festival on Sunday, Monday became mudbug day. New first timers were John (though he only ate shrimp), Kathy, Judy and Dan. Those who ate them loved them. John and Kathy are new full timers and I have added a link the their blog Winds of Destiny - RV Life to my blog list.
Tom, Linda, Connie and Ken also loved the crawdads.
On Wednesday Dan, Merlene, Nanc and I had dinner with local friends Jim Duhon and Judy Bailey whom we have not had a chance to see much on this visit. Judy was a Country Music Association Award nominee in the early 1980's and we just learned she will be receiving and Lifetime Achievement Award at the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame in September, Very Cool. Another great week of friends and festivals with another festival, the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, to look forward to this weekend. They have a festival for everything in Louisiana!
1 comment:
How fun!
Post a Comment