'It's Lafayette's backyard party': Remembering 50 years of Festivals Acadiens et Créoles

Fifty years ago, residents of southwest Louisiana had a slightly different relationship with the region's traditional Cajun and Creole music.

Fiddles, accordions and French songs would regularly fill the air at country get-togethers around Acadiana, and zydeco greats like Clifton Chenier and Boozoo Chavis could be seen playing their modern interpretation of Creole sound at dance halls like Slim's Y-Ki-Ki and Richard's — but the region's top performers had never before gathered on a big stage, for the sole purpose of showing off their best stuff for a general audience.  

That's why it was special, when a young Barry Ancelet conceived of "Hommage a la Musique Acadienne." That concert, held at Lafayette's Blackham Coliseum on a rainy spring day in 1974, featured many of the era's best-known performers, such as Clifton Chenier, Marc Savoy, Jimmy C. Newman and the Balfa Brothers. And no one was more surprised than Ancelet, and his colleagues at the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, when the concert was a run-away hit.  

"It was supposed to be a one-off," said Ancelet, now professor emeritus of Francophone studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He assumed that the show would mainly attract a smaller, older crowd, because it was thought then that young Louisianans had less interest in traditional music. 

Instead, a multi-generational audience, including thousands of young people, came ready to party. According to Ancelet, "It went so well, we did it again next year."

This year marks the 50th anniversary of that concert, now known to fans the world over as Festivals Acadiens et Créoles. People who remember that first night at the Blackham Coliseum say that the festival's spirit hasn't changed much in the intervening decades.

The organizers transitioned to Girard Park in 1976, and added more stages, tents and cultural areas over the next several years — but even as the event has grown larger, it has remained a welcoming place for people to gather in shared appreciation for the music and dance that makes Acadiana's culture unique. 

Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, then and now

Lafayette native Harold Bernard said that he decided to head out to Blackham Coliseum for the inaugural show because he loved to dance, but he expected that the rain would keep the crowds away. 

"I was 21 years old, living on Cherry Street, and I had already seen most of the groups before since I was in the dance halls at 17," he says. Bernard, who has spent his career teaching the Cajun waltz and two-step at Glide Studios in Lafayette, waited for the rain to slack a bit before riding over on his bike. 

Bernard said, "The roads were actually flooded, and I remember thinking I was gonna be the only one in the place. I got off my bike, and the water was to my ankles around Blackham Coliseum, but there were a lot of cars. I'll never forget the feeling I had when I walked in and saw the whole stadium was at capacity.

"They had the most Cajun crowd that had ever existed before or since then. I mean, people had come, they had dressed up. They had come to see their heroes, or their relatives, play." 

One thing was missing that night that has come to define the Festivals Acadiens et Créoles experience: dance. Bernard says that the police officers on duty for the concert herded him and his friends back to their seats after they got up to dance, but subsequent years would prove that dancing and Cajun music festivals just go together. 

"We were college students, and we had already been going out to these dance halls at these remote places, and had already learned that this music was for dancing, and not for just listening," says Bernard. 

Neil Burgard was also in the room that night, disappointed to find out there wouldn't be dancing, but enjoying the music nonetheless. The 21-year-old had just moved to Lafayette from New Orleans the year before, and the festival would become a formative part of his life in Acadiana. 

"New Orleans was real clique-ish," he says. "I would come visit my girlfriend in Lafayette, and I just met all kinds of people, and it was a real friendly place."

A few years later Burgard attended in Girard Park with a new girlfriend, who would go on to become his wife. It became an annual tradition to set up a tent and an ice chest, welcome friends and family from New Orleans, and experience the festival together. 

"It's like Lafayette's backyard party. You see friends you haven't seen since last year, and it's always a good time. I've never seen a fight, or any bad feelings or anything like that," says Burgard. 

'It leaves an impression on young minds'

There's no question that Festivals Acadiens et Créoles has become a significant part of Lafayette's identity as a community, and that is largely thanks to the enthusiasm with which the first festival was received — and especially, the excitement that it generated among young people. Those initial attendees kept going throughout their lives, forging friendships, dancing, and forming a relationship with Acadiana's unique sound. 

Even as the region's dance halls closed, Cajun and Zydeco music continued to emerge into mass popularity. According to Herman Fuselier, executive director of the St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission, this happened because festivals started to be the venue of choice for local musicians, which helped introduce the music to a new generation of fans. 

"Having Zydeco, Creole, Cajun music in the festival scene was unheard of back then," says Fuselier. "For so long you had to go to the night clubs and dance halls, but now you could bring your whole family. It leaves an impression on young minds. Now you see second and third generation musicians adopting the music and the culture, and playing at festivals.

"It makes me think — there's a picture of Steve Riley at around 10 years old at Festival Acadiens, right at the foot of the stage. You can tell he's mesmerized. He went from being that little kid at the foot of the stage, to a Grammy-winning musician who set the modern bar for accordion players."