Fools Night Out comes from a song by Phil Wiggins | Moon photo courtesy Michael's Photo Gallery.
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The Blackpot Festival was this weekend at the Acadian Village in Lafayette. Blackpot is in its 3rd year and is growing. This is probably the dead end of the festival season. This year the weather was gorgeous during the day. The nights were quite cold.
The festival grounds are at the Acadian Village which is a folklife museum for Cajun culture. They have a nice covered pavilion for a main stage. This year there is a new wood dance floor ala Ninigret, and a lot of other dance festivals. They are using the Chapel for a second sit-down stage.
And there is camping. Irrespective of the cold nights (47 degrees or so) the camping is kinda bad. The camping is mostly on a grassed over gravel parking lot. So it can be a bit uncomfortable. There are hookups for RVs, so those guys are doing fine. There weren't enough port-a-potty this year either, but that probably will improve next year. But I think the on-campus/off- campus call is a tough one for this festival. Many folks are just crashing on friend's floors.
The music was good. There are slews of videos on YouTube by cparisb4udie, who's a local professor in Communications.
I got to see DL Menard for the first time in many years. I don't think he travels anymore. I got to see Cedric Watson's new band for the first time. I liked his set, but the frattoir player seems to still be getting used to the instrument... he did some cool stuff with a rainstick though. Saturday morning Steve Riley won the accordion contest with Wilson Savoy in second. Tracy Schwartz & Ginny Hawker were wonderful. Kristen Andreaassen was there too. She did a nice short set in the Chapel. You'll know her from Uncle Earl. She sang some with Ruthie Ungar making up 2/3rds of the band Somethymes Why... which is apparently due for a 2nd name change. Kristen was out on the dance floor quite a bit. I missed what was from all accounts a stunning performance by David Greely in the Chapel. And there was a huge Ithaca/Ashokan contingent... including a all-star square dance band, Jay Ungar & Molly Mason w/ Swingology, and slews of dancers from NY. The Lafayette Rhythm Devils, Preston Frank, Feaufollet, & the Racines were all wonderful. Carol Fran, I was not familiar with and I only caught the end of her set, but she's a wonderful blues singer. And the guys from the Red Stick Ramblers were ubiquitous. They are the host band and organizers of the festival. They finished the show quite well... save the late night jamming in the camp ground.
There was a good crowd of dancers, the NY contingent was probably half the crowd. It was hard to find (or get a dance with) the locals for all the furriners.
Simultaneously, there is a cooking competition going on Saturday. And there are delicious samples are available around dinner time. The festival food was pretty good, an improvement over last year, I'm told.
The Dirk Powell/Obama video that I find was discussed here was also much in discussion in Louisiana. There has apparently been a lot of positive & negative feedback. Some folks refused to come to the festival if 'one cent' went to Obama. (Which wasn't the case). Incidentally it is a promotional video (as opposed to an event) filmed at the Whirly bird outside Opelousas (if you can find it).
The festival itself is kinda short, but it left time to go explore. I made the pre-party at the Blue Moon. And saw Les Freres Michot in Parc Sans Souci downtown Friday noon. Sunday I made it out to a potluck/jam in Amaudville before I had to fly back home <sigh>.