Wayne Toups to close festival music lineup

The Experience Louisiana Festival will open its second year with a New Orleans style second line parade through the festival site.
Dwight Jodon, a festival organizer and spokesman, said Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser is planning to be in the lead of the parade, which is to feature the Hacienda Brass Band from New Orleans.
And, there will be at least a first prize for the best-decorated umbrella.
The Experience Louisiana Festival is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday on the Louisiana State University Eunice campus.
The festival is a project of the Eunice Rotary Club and is a revival of the Louisiana Folklife Festival held in Eunice in the 1980s and 1990s.
The festival, held adjacent to the LSUE Community Education Building, is expansive in its scope and includes activities as diverse as athletic events to chef demonstrations.
The festival’s major components include the Folklife Village, Main Stage, Food Village, Musician’s Village, Walk-Through Louisiana, Craft Village, Artist’s Village, Film Village, cooking demonstrations by Louisiana chefs, Narrative Stages, softball and baseball games, and an antique and classic car show.
“The band schedule is coming along,” Jodon said.
Sunday’s closing band, Wayne Toups, is “a big deal,” Jodon said.
Toups, a Grammy-award winner, performed at the first Experience Louisiana Festival.
Saturday’s opening band has yet to be named by its sponsor, the Cajun French Music Association Acadian Chapter, Jodon said.
The second band on Saturday is Cypress Band featuring Warren Storm and Willie Tee.
ChaWa will return to the opening theme of New Orleans music at 2 p.m. followed by High Performance at 4 p.m.
The radio show at the Liberty Theater will be held at the festival featuring Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie.
Sunday’s music opens with Sabra and the Get Rights, The Band Courtbouillon and lastly Toups.
The festival coincides with the Eunice High School homecoming.
“We expect a lot of people in town for that and hope some of them trickle over to the festival,” Jodon said.
Filmmaker Pat Mire, a Eunice High School graduate, is returning to stage a film festival, he said. This year’s films are to include films that included local people, he said.
“The Folklife Village is the core of everything,” Jodon said. “The Park Service is dialing up their hosting of that. I think they are planning to have more rangers on the ground. They will have more folk demontrators than last year. I think they are right at 30 right now.”
The folk demonstrators offer an opportunity to see traditional crafts and talk to craftsmen.
The Narrative Stage is likely to be named the Talk Stage where recordings will be made of folk demonstrators talking about their crafts.
The Eunice Mardi Gras Association is planning to return with a mini-run Saturday afternoon, he said.
Also on the Mardi Gras theme, the Gheens Mardi Gras from the Houma-Thibodaux area may come to the festival. The Gheens Mardi Gras is often referred to as the whipping Mardi Gras because of its unique tradition, he said.
Suzanne Breaux, a royal costume maker from Lafayette, is expected to set up an exhibit.
LSUE’s softball and baseball teams are scheduled exhibition games. At noon Saturday, the championship LSUE softball team will play the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s team followed by LSUE’s baseball team playing LSUA.
The LSUE softball team returns Sunday for a 1 p.m. game with McNeese.
“The prestige of the Eunice programs are a big plus for the city and school,” Jodon said.
Most of the favorites of the first festival are returning, he said.
The 8 a.m. Saturday boucherie is back and the activities for children are back and expanded, he said.
Jean Lafitte’s Recognizing Our Roots program is scheduled for the festival. The living history program includes high school students in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and for Choctaw youth from Louisiana’s Jena Band of Choctaw Indians, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. They reenact life at the 1815 Battle of New Orleans.
Two tribes plan demonstrations at the festival. They are Canneci N’de Band of Lipan Apache and the Attakapas Opelousas Prairie Tribe are scheduled. A third tribe, which was popular at the first festival, the Coushattas, may also come to the festival, he said.
Bayou Teche Brewing, of Arnaudville, is planning a keg-tapping event on Saturday.
One change from the festival is the addition of a $5 per vehicle parking fee.
Jodon said the parking fee should help the festival in its crowd count.
Primary festival sponsors are Eunice Rotary Club, LSU Eunice, City of Eunice, National Park Service, St. Landry Parish Tourist Commission and Louisiana Office of Tourism.