I've been remiss in not posting about this earlier. Every year in April, Lafayette hosts the Festival International de Louisiane - the largest outdoor, free Francophone event in the U.S. I try to tell every one I know about this festival because, as a huge fan of music, I can honestly say that it is one of the coolest venues to find new bands and listen to music that I have ever been exposed to. I am not exaggerating here. Reasons why:- The music comes from all over the world. Here is a list of countries that send musicians to the festival: England, Zaire, Canada, Martinique, Cuba, Mali, Burundi, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Ireland, Republic of Congo, France, Cameroon, Benin, Australia, Ethiopia. There are more.
- 5 days of music and events
- Held in the entire downtown area of Lafayette, closed to cars, and tons of space for lawn chairs and families. This is a family event crossed with the perfect mix of new and local music. This is not your crowded festival with no space to breathe.
- Did I mention local music? If it suits your liking, some of the best Zydeco and Cajun artists pepper the lists of performers.
- It's free.
The highlight of my experience this year: Cyro Baptista & Beat the Donkey. I confess I had no idea who they were. Turns out, Cyro is a famous percussionist. His credits include: Yo-Yo Ma's
Brazil Project, Trey Anastasio's Band, John Zorn's Electric Masada, Herbie Hancock's Grammy award winning "Gershwin’s World" , Sting and Paul Simon's "Rhythm of the Saints". The Beat the Donkey show was all over the map. This man played wrenches, PVC pipes (with cheap beach flip flops as the "sticks"), and an assortment of exotic drums. Seriously - one of the coolest shows I've been to.If you are ever thinking of dropping by for a visit, I recommend the festival weekend.
2 comments:
BeauSoleil and multi Grammy award winner Michael Doucet were rained out Saturday night and BBC was here to film a documentary on them. They were eating dinner at my parents place (Antoni's) and decided to do a private impromptu concert in the BLVD Grill (my parent's other restaurant) for BBC to film! Jeff (my brother who runs the Grill) said it was amazing!
That's a cool story. You know, I was eating in BLVD Grill on Monday (or Tuesday) and saw the scribbles on the chalkboard that said: "BeauSoleil was here." I figured they just ate some food. But a live show! That rocks. And BBC filmed it! Jealous. If that ever happens again (what are the odds of that), you have to tell Jeff to call me.
Post a Comment