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Music can inspire.
It can stimulate.
It can conjure up emotions one doesn’t even know he or she has within.
And for one weekend every October in the bayou region, singer and songwriter Tab Benoit hopes all of those feelings can come together to unite.
A world-renowned recording artist who never lost his Terrebonne Parish roots, Benoit’s biggest weekend of the year approaches once again as the 11th annual Voice of the Wetlands Festival will be held Oct. 10-12 at the Southdown Museum grounds in Houma.
Featuring an all-Louisiana weekend for the first time in the event’s history, many local favorites can be seen and heard throughout the weekend – including Benoit to round out all three nights – old hat for one of the hardest-working performers in show business. And the festival closes with one of the greatest ensembles south Louisiana could possibly put together – and that’s saying a whole heck of a lot – in the Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars featuring Dr. John, Cyril Neville, Anders Osborne, George Porter Jr., Jumpin Johnny Sansone, Waylon Thibodeaux, Johnny Vidacovich, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and, of course, Benoit.
But the festival, which is free and open to the public, is about much more than music – even though the lineup rivals many expensive festivals out there. It’s about south Louisiana’s people, its culture, its food and most importantly, its quickly disappearing wetlands.
“We’re trying to make noise and trying to get the people together to celebrate the coast and the culture and try to get in the game as far as making sure when [government] is making decisions for our future that we are being heard,” Benoit said. “It’s an important aspect of where we live. Nobody in the country is losing land like this. This is a very unique situation, and we all need to be a little more active than we are.”
The purpose of the festival cuts deep into Benoit’s heart, who said he’s seen his family lose the majority of the land he grew up on in Terrebonne Parish, and even though the annual event typically breaks even or loses money, the festival’s title Voice of the Wetlands states exactly what it means.
“[Government] is deciding our future, and personally I don’t think they’re making a very good decision,” Benoit said as a self-proclaimed expert on the topic. “They’re not doing very good work out there, and you look for the plan for what’s coming, there’s no good long-term decision-making for what’s getting ready to happen… [Politicians] don’t live here. They don’t see it every day like we do, like the fishermen do, like the crabbers do, like the people who work in the oil field do. Come on, they see it every day. How do you expect them to make a great decision? I don’t.”
Benoit said he would like to see a real effort to bring fresh water into the wetland areas.
“And we’re not going to stop erosion till we do that,” he explained. “We can throw sand on the barrier islands all we want, but we’ve done that throughout the history of this thing and it’s never worked and it doesn’t stay and it’s like throwing a bunch of our money away every time they throw sand on an island. We’ve got to have something that’s keeping the land building in the building process, and without fresh water from the river we have no chance. That’s the only thing that I’ve seen that stops erosion. It stopped it in the Atchafalaya basin. It’ll stop it in the Mississippi, and we’ve got to find a way to get some of that to where we live.”
Benoit hopes his music and his words can help those who listen stand united against coastal erosion in south Louisiana. He said in years past at least half of the festival’s attendance is from other states. In fact, festival coordinator Percy Rodriguez said about 60 percent of the event’s volunteers are from out of state. This provides locals a rare opportunity to spread the message to all corners of the country.
“We find that when we can get more and more people to come to Houma, to come to south Louisiana, enjoy the food, enjoy the dance, enjoy the people, that is a goodwill ambassador that we need,” Rodriguez said. “ … Tab has proven time and time again that if we bring the message out to the people in this country, to the rest of America, then they have more than willingly supported our effort. They understand our cause; as a result, they speak to their elected officials and now we have a different avenue by which elected officials are becoming aware of our problems and possibly can lead assistance simply by listening to their own constituents.”
To make the event even more local, all vendors and exhibitors must be true to the Cajun culture, Rodriguez said.
“We were emphatic about that, because it’s our desire to expose to those who attend the festival, particularly those from out of town, it gives them a different view, a different side of the Cajun culture as well as it gives them the idea to being a souvenir back,” said the festival coordinator.
Giving non-locals a taste – figuratively and literally – of Louisiana – can only help to spread the message. And who wouldn’t love the Cajun hospitality we provide in the Bayou Region?
“It’s about the food, the music and the people. One of the biggest things I stress that other people from out of state experience is the local people and how friendly everybody is and how generous people are. That makes them want to help,” Benoit said.
It’s that same helping spirit that Benoit said is a metaphor for everything he and the rest of the Voice of the Wetlands crew is trying to accomplish. He encourages anyone interested to volunteer. In fact, he calls it part of the fun.
“It’s wide open. They can show up the day of if they want to work a few hours, come right in, sign up to be a volunteer and come right in to helping out and then enjoy the rest of the weekend. That’s part of the fun is everybody’s helping to put it on and that’s what I get from it, seeing people come together,” said the musician.
For one weekend, south Louisiana comes together to defend its home turf. Otherwise, there might not be many home games left. Benoit stands with his homeland. All he asks is you do too.
“If we don’t come together and figure out whether we’re going to stay here or we’re going to pack up and leave, we’ve got to make that decision together, and that decision hasn’t even been made. It’s about us getting together for the coast, for Louisiana, for Terrebonne Parish,” Benoit explained.
