FESTIVALS ACADIENS ET CREOLES: Event broadens
For one of Lafayette’s premier cultural festivals, 2008 is a year of changes
Festivals Acadiens, which begins Friday with Downtown Alive! and continues through the weekend, becomes Festivals Acadiens et Creoles this year, a name change that better reflects the scope of this more than 30-year-old event, organizers say.
Folklorist Barry Ancelet, who has worked with the festival since its inception, said the name change isn’t just about adding a new focus to the festival.
“The name change was about more accurately reflecting what we’ve been doing with the festival since its beginnings,” he said. “Creole music and culture has been a part of this from the start, and we wanted the name to reflect that.”
There has also been a shift in the festival’s overall management.
The festival’s original structure was loose, with organizations in the community pitching in to sponsor events. The Lafayette Jaycees were the primary sponsor for the music component for many years, and other organizations, like the Lafayette Natural History Museum and CODOFIL, all contributed.
This year, a board of directors, consisting of members across the community, was created. The group, which consists of five executive board members and a dozen general board members from all areas of the community, have shifted the organizational burden away from the producing organizations.
“The board reflects the community the festival tries to serve,” Ancelet said. “That will make a better festival.”
Ancelet said the current change to include Creole culture in the festival’s name isn’t the first time the festival has re-branded in order to more accurately reflect its ambitions.
“The original name for the event was ‘A Tribute to Cajun Music’ in 1974,” Ancelet said. “When we shifted to ‘Festivals Acadiens’ in 1980, we were doing what we’re doing now. We were changing the name to reflect who we really are.”
And with the assistance of the Performing Arts Society of Acadiana, that broadening of recognition for Creole culture is finding its way into local schools.
PASA conducted a series of workshops and master classes in local schools this week with festival artists Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys. Broussard and his band are also spotlighting Creole and Zydeco culture through the PASA event Zydeco! an original dance piece choreographed by the Elisa Monte Dance Co.
Broussard, members of the Monte Dance Co. and local dance group the Zydeco Ballers all spent time in local classrooms introducing students to Creole and zydeco music and dance.
“With the festival and the Monte dance piece, it’s a good time to introduce students to Creole music,” said Apiyo Obala, community relations director for PASA. “Creole culture is such an important part of our local culture. It’s important to ensure that it’s still appreciated and its importance is passed on.”
Festivals Acadiens et Creoles is also implementing other changes to broaden its scope.
One new venue, Salle de Danse, addresses a wish of past festivalgoers eager to enjoy more fully the musical lineup of the festival.
“We’ve had people say the wish they could dance,” said Pat Mould, another key organizer of the festival. “And it didn’t make sense to put a dance floor up in front of the outdoor venues. So we’re putting up a tent for a dancehall.”
Zydeco and Creole acts are predominant on the Salle de Danse lineup, including Dexter Ardoin and the Creole Ramblers and Jeffrey Broussard and the Creole Cowboys.
Other new additions to the festival are a food demonstration area called Culture de la Table, which will feature rotating food preparations demos with local chefs, and La Place des Petits, an area for children, which will feature hands-on activities appropriate for younger festivalgoers, with both French and English spoken components.
Mould said these new additions to the festival experience – along with the name change – are all geared towards broadening the reach of the festival.
“The festival is already clear on its identity,” Mould said. “But these ways to broaden the scope of it make it clearer to the community who we are at Festivals Acadiens et Creoles.
“No pun intended, but we’re just trying to further the things that brought us to the dance to begin with.”
theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008810090337
October 9th, 2008 by Ragin Cajun /
No Comments »