One big thing: Festivals Acadiens et Créoles
When? Thursday, Oct. 11 through Sunday, Oct. 14
Where: Girard Park, 500 Girard Park Drive
Cost: Free. Parking available for $10 per vehicle/per entry.
What’s the big deal? Some of the best Cajun and Zydeco musicians perform across multiple stages during the annually amazing Festival Acadiens et Créoles. This year’s edition of the festival starts with a special 7 p.m. Thursday concert at Warehouse 535 (535 Garfield St.). The concert, dubbed “An Evening of Lafayette Music,” features nearly 30 musicians performing their own songs as well as tunes by the late Cajun lyrical memory vault Caesar Vincent. Tickets to Thursday’s show are $10. Purchase tickets and get more information on the concert here. Festivals Acadiens et Créoles officially kicks off at 5 p.m. Friday at Girard Park (500 Girard Park Drive) with the cutting of the boudin, followed by the Friday Night fais-do-do and performances from Chubby Carrier & the Bayou Swamp Band, and Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys (both bands are celebrating their 30th anniversaries). The free fun and music continues through Sunday with performances from groups such as the Pine Leaf Boys, Jeffery Broussard & the Creole Cowboys, Curley Taylor & Zydeco Trouble, The Revelers, Feufollet and Lost Bayou Ramblers. Of course, that’s not all. This weekend event also includes a craft fair, cooking demonstrations, and the Bayou Food Festival. If you don’t have fun at this event, you probably don’t have a pulse, so call that doctor already.
Get more information and a complete schedule of Festival Acadiens et Créoles 2018 here.
Wait, there’s more: Blue Moon Saloon (215 E. Convent St.) is the official honky tonk for post-Festival parties. The venue will have shows Thursday-Sunday. Check out the schedule here. You can also check out the free symposium, “Work is Too Hard, and Love is a Cheat: The Lyrical Rebellion of French Folksong in Louisiana,” in the Hilliard Museum’s A. Hays Town Building at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. Get more information and register here. The festival’s accompanying Tour Des Atakapas race and duathlon starts at 7 a.m. Saturday. Sign up for and get more information on the races here. And don’t forget that Sunday starts with a French Mass at 9 a.m. at Girard Park.
Here’s what I would eat at Festival Acadiens et Créoles: In the middle of kicking up a cloud of dust while dancing to great music, you’re gonna need a bite to eat. Naturally, you might try a boudin pesto hand pie ($5) from Acadian Slice Pies. Bon Creole Seafood will have its crawfish/spinach boats ($9), you know, if you don’t want to do anymore dancing after eating. Charlie T’s makes some mean cracklins ($6 per bag) and a boudin ball ($2). Scratch Farm Kitchen is my jam, so yeah, I’d get a W.E. grassfed burger ($8). Then there’s Taco Sisters, serving up those brisket burritos and shrimp tacos ($8 a piece). Get your bib ready (because, drool) and check out what everyone’s serving here.
Also coming up
THURSDAY: Righteous rocker and singer-songwriter Paul Thorn brings his band to perform Thursday at Vermilionville (300 Fisher Road). Doors open at 7 p.m. The show start at 8 p.m. with an opening set from Bonnie Bishop. Reserved seats are $45. Get tickets and more information here.
SATURDAY: Pancakes, the breakfast food of champions and Cajuns alike, will be served “all you can eat” style during the Kiwanis Club of Acadiana’s 18th annual Zydeco Pancake Breakfast. The event starts at 8 a.m. at Parc International and features a kids’ area with games, and music from Terry and the Zydeco Bad Boys. Tickets are $7. Get more information here.
SATURDAY: Explore the Downtown Lafayette Cultural District at the second Saturday ArtWalk. 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Free. Check out all the events happening with ArtWalk here.
TUESDAY: This singer-songwriter guy Bob Dylan will perform with his band at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Heymann Center (1373 S. College Road). Supposedly, he wrote some good songs and starred in a Victoria’s Secret commercial. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him, but that magazine Rolling Stone loves him for some reason. Get more information and tickets here. TUESDAY: The Lafayette Public Library (301 W. Congress St.) hosts a free screening of Howard the Duck during its “So Bad, It’s Good Movie Night” at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Note: drag queens might appear at this event. Get more information here.