GALLERY: First Pirates and Boots Festival was an adventure

Ahoy, me hearties! Keep Terrebonne Beautiful hosted its first annual Pirates and Boots Festival on Saturday. Families, friends, and community organizations gathered at the marina in downtown Houma on Saturday morning. The event was held to raise funds for Keep Terrebonne Beautiful, a non-profit anti-litter beautification organization.

Kicking off at 11 a.m., the first annual Pirates and Boots Festival featured live entertainment, activity stations, and dozens of food, home decor, and arts and crafts vendors. Billie Richard, Executive Director of Keep Terrebonne Beautiful said the organization is excited to see its vision come to life after two years of planning.

“We started the festival as a fundraiser for Keep Terrebonne Beautiful but also to educate people about what we do. We not only want to prevent litter in the parish, but we want to teach people to recycle their cans and to throw away their trash when they’re done with it,” said Richard. “This is our first time hosting the festival, we began planning in December 2019 for April 2020, but we all know what happened in April of 2020. We had to push it back for two years and we’re just happy to finally be able to see our vision come to life.”

Live music was provided by the Cajun Music Preservation Society, The Whiskey Bay Rovers, and Nonc Nu and Da Wild Matous. A variety of activity stations included face painting, water activities, and educational activities. “We’ve had such a great turnout, we have storybooks, tic tac toe, and Jenga for the kids. Everything’s slowly going back to normal and everyone is having a great time,” said Lillie Brunet of Terrebonne Parish Library.

Wayne Table and Squid Vicious provided guests with the ultimate pirate experience arriving at the festival dressed in poet shirts, waistcoats, and cutlasses in hand. The two privateers traveled from Metairie on Saturday morning on a voyage to a pirate adventure. “It’s exciting to get out after being locked up for two years. It’s nice to be out with no mask, people, fresh air, and nice weather,” said Wayne Table. Pirate Squid Vicious said he looked forward to shopping, eating good food, and enjoying the weather. “I’m looking forward to seeing everything there is to offer here at the festival, I heard this is the organization’s first time hosting the event so we’re excited to be a part of it.”

Richard said this year’s Pirates and Boots Festival is the first of many to come, in Keeping Terrebonne Beautiful’s effort to provide a clean and healthy environment. “We have great weather, we’re having a great turnout, we do plan on hosting it as an annual event. I’m excited, we can only get better from today,” she said.

For more information on Keep Terrebonne Beautiful, future events or to volunteer visit them on Facebook.