Haraln Kirgan
Musician Luke Huval was on stage tuning up his fiddle before the third annual Experience Louisiana Festival opened Saturday.
The wind was blowing and the temperature seemed stuck somewhere in the 40s as the Cajun French Music Association Young Musicians assembled to help get the sound system in order.
“Right now my fingers are hurting,” Huval said as the opening ran about 45 minutes behind scheduled.
But the festival also was opening to a sunny day. That weather is forecast to continue to today when the festival reopens at 10:30 a.m. on the LSUE campus.
Chancellor Kimberly Russell said, “This is our third year. We are very excited to have everyone out. It is going to be a beautiful weekend. I’m expecting over 5,000 visitors to our campus. This is probably the biggest event we have all year long.”
LSUE student athletes help set up the festival, which is organized by the Eunice Rotary Club to fund scholarships at the university.
Rotarian Pat Dossman, in opening the festival from the main stage, said, “I want you to eat. I want you to drink. I want you to speak French, if you can do it.”
And, Eunice Mayor Scott Fontenot said, “We hope you have a great time. If you are cold, you got to start dancing to warm up.”
Dwight Jodon, a Rotarian, said the grounds, which were wet from storms Friday, would soon dry out under sunny skies and a north wind.
“Everything is good. You look around and you see a combine, a hay baler and tractors and art and folk and all of those parts that put this together,” Jodon said. “It is just so amazing to see it all come together. Months, months, months of work end up on one arriving here.”
The festival, which is organized by villages, added an Agriculture Village this year complete with 4-H’ers showing their projects.
Today
10:30 a.m Festival Officially Opens
BAND: Warren Storm — Willie Tee & Cypress Band (Main Stage)
Food Booths Open (Main Grounds)
Folklife Village Opens — Folk Demonstrators
Craft Village Opens
Walk-Through Louisiana Opens
Mardi Gras Exhibits Open (Community Ed Building Lobby)
11 a.m Ag Village: Forestry Game (Demonstration Tent/Area)
Children’s Activity, Bracelet (Exhibit Tent)
Financial Application, FSA (Exhibit Tent)
11:30 a.m FILM: Cinema on the Bayou back-to-back film trailers (CEB)
11:45 a.m FILM: Forever My Love—Music from the Bayou — director Pat Mire (CEB)
Noon The Silver Belles Dance Group (Main Stage BREAK)
Roman Catholic Latin Mass (LSUE Quadrangle, center of campus)
The Bee Whisperer (CEB)
Canneci N’de Band of Lipan Apache Drumming & Dancing (Walk-Through)
Artist Village Opens
12:30 p.m. BAND: Louisiana Red (Main Stage)
Smokey Bear in Ag Village
1 p.m. COOKING DEMO: Chef Drake Leonards (CEB Culinary Arts Room)
FILM: Sushi and Sauce Piquante: The Life and Music of Gerry McGee—director
Pat Mire (CEB)
Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe Drumming & Dancing (Walk-Through)
Ag Village: Goats & Poultry (Demonstration Tent/Area)
1:30 p.m. Silver Belles, Senior Dance Group (Artist Village)
2 p.m. Ag Village: Youth Ag Book (Demonstration Tent/Area)
Canneci N’de Band of Lipan Apache Drumming & Dancing (Main Stage
2:30 p.m. BAND: The Savoy Family Band (Main Stage)
3 p.m. Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe Drumming & Dancing (Walk-Through)
4 p.m. Festival Closes
CEB — Community Education Building
HPE — Health & Physical Education Building