Food, Fun, and Festivities, "Louisiana" Style

Let The Good Times Roll

Springtime in Southeastern Louisiana means thousands of different things. One of these things on which you can depend every weekend; somewhere in this part of the state, beginning now and continuing through the end of the year, there WILL be a fair, festival, concert, or other fun, food-filled, festive outdoor event. Some are well known, attracting visitors from across the globe, others are smaller, neighborhood events with local flavor and attendance. However, much like the innumerable restaurants across the Crescent City, the largest and most well known of these, does not necessarily mean "the best." No matter the size, you can be sure that in each there will be food, music, fun, and drink flowing. In most, there will be activities centered on the events theme, dancing, crafts, and plenty of local flavor.

Why now until the end of the year? That is simple. In our area, the Mardi Gras Carnival Season begins just after the New Year's celebrations have played themselves out. Much more than a weekend or week. Mardi Gras is actually a "season" of celebration, masquerade balls, and events held by the private Mardi Gras Krewes, Tribes, and Social Clubs. The official end of the season is the stroke of midnight, as "Fat Tuesday" becomes "Ash Wednesday." We have now taken a couple of weeks off to do some Spring cleaning, rest, plant the vegetable and flower gardens, maybe get in a Spring turkey hunt or, more likely, head to our favorite fishing hole to round up some early season speckled trout, red fish, or large-mouth bass. Now its time to "laissez les bons tons rouler" once more.

Mark Your Calendars

It seems there are a few weekends each year when inextricable plans are already made and I will discover that I will be missing one of these SELA's special events I look forward to each year. There are plenty of others to make up for the one missed, but I still fret missing my favorites.

To make it easier to keep track of these all-important dates, the New Orleans' Times-Picayune publishes an annual list of most of these events. Today, (3/30/07) was publishing day for this year. Every Friday in the TP there is an entertainment section for the area, which serves as a guide of events for the week ahead. Included in its pages are the listing of live music venues, cinema features, local live theater performances, museum exhibits, art galleries, farmers and art markets, book and reading events, and other special events that are not so easily categorized. The weekly entertainment section is aptly named, Lagniappe, (lan-'yap) a Cajun-French term which means, "a little something extra or a small, unexpected gift." For SELA, these fairs and festivals are lagniappe on top of the already over-flowing bounty of beautiful sights, sounds, delicacies and activities found here.

I will not attempt to duplicate the list in its entirety, but I will arrange a shorter list to give you a taste of what is coming up. I hope to include the largest events and some of the smaller ones that I have experienced or heard positive feedback about through the muscadine vine. What I now present is a few different breakdowns of these events to demonstrate their number, diversity, similarities, and the simple fact there is never a dull moment in the area Lagniappe describes as "within about a three-hour drive from New Orleans." If you want to browse for yourself, the website that includes much of the TP information is "http://www.nola.com/" Many of the events have their own websites and can be located by a search of the event's name or the city in which it is held.

This Weekend!

Hurry up! The "Good Times" have already begun to roll, as many of the areas larger weekend-long festivals crank up on Friday afternoon.

Audubon Country Bird Fest.........St. Francisville

Boggy Bayou Festival............Pine Prairie

Creole Festival..........Jeanerette

Grand Bois Cajun/Swamp Pop Music Festival..........Sun

Jackson Assembly Antiques Festival and Tour...........Jackson

Jubilee Festival of Arts and Humanities.................Thibodeaux

Latin American Environmental Media Festival...........Sun

Louisiana Crawfish Festival............Chalmette (Not to be confused with "The Crawfish

Festival held annually in Breaux Bridge)

New Orleans Spring Fiesta

Patterson Express Sawmill Festival............Patterson

Smokin' Blues & Bar-B-Que Challenge.........Hammond (This is one I would like to

sample.)

Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival

Abita Springs Whole Towne Garage Sale and Flea Markets

Folk Crafts Festival................Madisonville

Kite Fest Louisiana....................Port Allen

Louisiana Rice and Gravy Cookoff.............Lafayette

Spring In The Swamp....................Marrero

Just think. That is only this weekend AND I left out some of the smaller events like church fairs, school fairs, neighborhood art markets and garage sales, etc.

The Number

Total Number of Events Listed in the TP-Lagniappe Calendar = 252

Total Number of Events Listed in the TP-Lagniappe Calendar by month:

April = 54

May = 29

June = 18

July =24

August = 9

September = 15

October = 48

November = 22

December = 8

The Reasons

In one area another these venues cross lines as to their major focus. I ran a quick tabulation of the number of events, of any size, celebrating a specific theme. Here is a breakdown of what I found.

Everyone knows we love to eat, therefore, it comes as no surprise that the number of events related to the celebration of Food is the largest with 39 overall. Of these food fests, fairs, and free-for-alls, 15 celebrate "seafood" or some form thereof; 9 celebrate "food" in general; and 4 are focused on cooking competitions.

Louisiana is one of the most culturally diverse states in our nation. Events celebrating, Ethnicity/Heritage/Culture had the second largest total at 28

Of course, a major part of any culture is music. There is no better way to celebrate music than to perform, dance, listen, eat and drink to it, perhaps while your dancing. If you want to listen to Music there are 12 events listed celebrating many different types.

Sometimes we celebrate the season or maybe just name the celebration for the season we decide to hold it in. There are 14 events seemingly dedicated to Spring & Fall.

Arts, Crafts, and Antiques Sales are another fine reason to celebrate. The TP Lagniappe lists 19 scheduled in SELA during the rest of the year.

Celebrations commemorating, preserving, and restoring or natural habitat total 11. These events celebrate different species of Animals, The Earth/Environment, Gardening, and Native Plants.

Historical Celebrations totaled 7; Events focusing specifically on Books, Literary Workshops and Film. 7; and SELA's Christmas Season features 9 delightful events.

If You Must Be Selective

If you are like me and your step-daughter has up and decided to lock-up one of your SELA Festival weekends this year by getting married, you may have to be a bit selective in your festival attendance. In closing I offer a monthly suggestion list of festivals, some huge, some tiny, some draw an international attendance, some draw the neighborhood. Of course some will be listed because they happen to be my personal favorites (*).

April

French Quarter Festival*

Strawberry Festival...............Ponchatoula

Festival Internationale De Louisian...............Lafayette

Italian Festival*..................Independence

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival* (By far and away, THE BEST!)

May

Crawfish Festival*...................Breaux Bridge

Jambalaya Festival.....................Gonzales

June

Soul Fest....................................New Orleans (Audubon Zoo)

Crab Cook-Off Festival.................Lacombe

July

Go Fourth On The River...................New Orleans

Star Spangled Celebration...................Baton Rouge

Essence Music Festival.........................New Orleans

Louisiana Catfish Festival...................Des Allemands

Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo

August

Satchmo Summerfest..........................New Orleans

National Hot Air Balloon Championship...................Baton Rouge

Shrimp Festival........................Delcambre

Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival.................Morgan City

September

Frog Festival................................Rayne

Andouille Festival..............................LaPlace

Creole Zydeco Festival........................St. Martinville

Great Southern Bluegrass Festival........................Angie

October

Heritage Festival*.........................................Gretna

Shadows On The Teche Arts and Crafts Festival........................New Iberia

Festivals Acadiens...............................Lafayette

Voice of the Wetlands Festival......................Houma (Hope to attend 1^st time this year.)

Wooden Boat Festival............................Madisonville

International Rice Festival.......................Crowley

N

November

Louisiana Swamp Festival*.........................New Orleans (Audubon Zoo)

Celebration In The Oaks............................New Orleans

December

Festival of Bonfires.................Lutcher

Zeigeist Creative Music Festival.........................New Orleans

Thanks For Reading!!!!