CFMA keeping Cajun music alive

For the past 19 years, the Bayou Cajuns chapter of the Cajun French Music Association has been holding its Festival de Bayou to support Acadian music, dancing and culture, and they’re not slowing down.

This year’s festival will be held Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Evergreen Cajun Center (4694 West Main St., near Gray) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $7.

“We like to promote dancing and Cajun culture,” said board member and festival chairwoman Linda Carrere.

The Cajun music starts as soon as the fair opens. Expect the dance area to fill quickly as Yvonne Smith and the Cajun Friends Band cranks things up at 10 a.m. and plays until around 1 p.m. In past years, the band has been nominated for three LeCajun Awards, “the Grammy Awards of Cajun music,” hosted by the Cajun French Music Association.

Smith is followed by Cajun/rhythm and blues band Treater, who will pound out the roots music until closing.

The Festival de Bayou does not have any amusement rides, but it doesn’t need any.

“People come and dance and have a good time,” Carrere said.

As for food, the fair will offer gumbo, jambalaya, potato salad and desserts.

The festival will hold auctions, but the affair will be informal. “People bring things as we go along,” Carrere said.

The raffle has several goodies available for the lucky. First and fifth prizes are $500 in cash. Second prize is a crab boiler. Third prize is a one-night stay at Wildlife Gardens in Gibson. Fourth is a Big Al’s restaurant gift certificate.

The festival will also have cake walks, half and halfs, and door prizes.

The Bayou Cajuns chapter also promotes use of the French language because “our French is dying,” Carrere said. The club pays for its members to take French classes at the Terrebonne Folklife Culture Center in Houma.

But music and dancing may be closer to the club’s raison d’etre. The Bayou Cajuns has a dance troupe which puts on Cajun dance demonstrations at the Folklife Center and other places.

Carrere said, “We do all kinds of things.”