Indoor music festival debuts in Houma

The local spring music festival season begins a couple weeks earlier this year with the inaugural Big Bayou Music Festival, and organizers are safeguarding against the potential for late dreary weather by hosting it indoors.

The three-day music event, staged inside the Evergreen Cajun Center, hosts a litany of local Cajun, zydeco and country musicians, says festival chairperson Reed Callais.

“I like to be the first and the best,” says Callais, who is also affiliated with the indoor Swamp Pop Music Festival in Gonzales. Big Bayou is the first multi-day music festival in the Tri-parish area this year.

“I don’t know of anyone that has an indoor festival in the area, so I thought it was something that would be advantageous for people to come by and enjoy,” he says.

Tommy McLain, Southern Cross, Nonc Nu and da Wild Matous, 90 Degrees West, Waylon Thibodeaux, Tet’ Dur and Foret Tradition are among the 12 scheduled acts.

The event runs from March 1-3. Admission is $10 on Friday and Sunday, and $15 on Saturday. The music lasts from 6:30 p.m. to midnight on Friday, 10 a.m. to midnight on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Music is the centerpiece, but the festival presents other options. Outside the center, carnival rides and a car show are set up, and arts and crafts vendors – with no restrictions on wares – sell their materials inside.

The car show is open to all vehicles that entered service prior to 1972. Organizers are expecting between 50 and 75 participants, Callais says.

A poker run and beauty pageant are also scheduled.

Traditional local food like jambalaya and seafood pistolettes are sold, as are fried pickles, hamburgers, cheese sticks and homemade desserts. Beer, daiquiris and other alcoholic beverages are sold.

Attendees are also permitted to take $1 chances on plaques encasing Louisiana State University- or New Orleans Saints-styled mosaics, Callais says.

Callais says inspiration came from the Gonzales festival, which began in 1998 and is staged indoors annually in July. It has adopted several offerings from Swamp Pop, most notably in its philanthropic goal to raise funds for cystic fibrosis research.

“We have a friend of ours who has cystic fibrosis,” Callais says. “CF, hopefully it’s going to stand for Cure Found in the near future.”

Nearly 300,000 people in the United States have been diagnosed with the disease, which infects the respiratory and digestive systems. The median predicted life span for people with the disease was in the mid-30s, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Last year the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug to address the disease’s root cause, generating hope that a cure is in reach.

Some proceeds from Big Bayou Music Fest will also be directed to fund Evergreen Lions Club programs, such as one that sends disabled children to the Louisiana Lions Camp or one that purchases eyeglasses for the visually impaired.

“(Big Bayou Music Festival is) for a good cause, it’s easily accessible, it’s going to kick off the festival season,” Callais says.

For more information, call (985) 291-6046.