Week 5: Prep roundup
October 2, 2012
Bayou Chene project gets Commerce nod
October 2, 2012
Sporadic and sometimes heavy rainfall throughout the weekend hampered the inaugural Best of the Bayou festival, but those who attended said they enjoyed cuisine and music and believe the event can grow into something special.
“Everybody needs to play in the rain once in a while,” said Thibodaux resident Denise Toups.
Play, they did. Children splashed around as a stream of local, regional and national acts performed from the festival’s two stages. Some crowds were sparse, but the gifted musicians did lure folks away from shelter.
Best of the Bayou, managed by the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce, received funding for two years through BP tourism-recovery grant funding funneled though parish government.
The allocation totaled $175,000 per year, according to organizers, and is being used as seed money as the organization hopes to build a recurring event. The primary goal is to bring in tourists, organizers said, so 15 local performers were balanced with regional acts with the intent to better induce a crowd.
It was the first multi-day music festival in downtown Houma since 2003, the last year Downtown on the Bayou was held.
Drake Pothier, the Chamber of Commerce and festival president, originally forecasted a crowd of about 15,000. Neither the chamber nor the Houma Police Department tracked attendance, but it did not approach that number.
“The weather certainly dampened that, but I’m still very pleased with the way (the festival) turned out,” he said. “You just can’t control the weather. Whether it happens in year one or year 10 – the potential of this event – you’re bound to be hampered by weather.”
“I think the biggest group that we lost as a result of the weather was the families. If you’re a couple or an individual, you can pop in somewhere with an umbrella, but it’s hard to manage little kids with the rain.”
Steps were taken to protect fans from the intermittent downpours.
The two music stages – located at the intersections of Main and Grinage and Barrow streets – were in proximity to downtown Houma’s overhang canopies, and crews with Vinyl Products erected tents early on Saturday to give more dry coverage to festivalgoers.
Organizers brought in a truckload of hay hours after the soulful Marc Broussard commanded a crowd in a field off Barrow Street to close Saturday. The mud prevented the crowd from standing as one, but as the Carencro native played his latest hits, listeners bounced about the muddy terrain.
Umbrellas over ponchos and boots were the weekend’s fashion stalwart. Just after noon on Saturday, Craig and Jennifer Dalferes toted brightly colored umbrellas and walked down a nearby empty Main Street with children Charles and Joseph in tow.
Cowboy Mouth closed the festival with an extended set into Sunday night, making up for the absence of GIVERS, the event’s main draw who did not make the trip due to airline delays.
Pothier said the band would not have been able to take the stage until roughly 10 p.m., which is two hours past the time approved on the festival’s sound permits with the parish. The president said the festival hopes to host GIVERS next year.
While rain dominated the weekend, there were moments of pause that drew revelers downtown.
Francis and Mary Bourgeois, while waiting on a concert Saturday evening, said the music lineup brought them from Thibodaux to Houma. The rain pushed back their arrival time, but it wasn’t going to prevent them from seeing New Orleans’ Bonerama.
Laura Harp, of Houma, said on Saturday she was a bit disappointed with the craft offerings, considering many vendors had to cover up their products.
“The crafts were the unfortunate casualty,” Pothier said. “I felt terrible for them because a lot of their stuff can be damaged or ruined by the weather.”
Thirty-four crafts vendors had signed up before the festival; several dropped out as the rain loomed and more left as the weather persisted. “I would say at the peak we probably had in the mid-20s.”
After a lackluster Saturday, woodwork artist Brien Vegas welcomed a reprieve from rain for a moment on Sunday.
“Yesterday, we stared at each other,” said Vegas, who had to cover his wood products featuring LSU and Saints’ insignias when the weather worsened. “I can’t believe the difference the weather makes. This morning is a lift; we have hope this morning.”
Minutes later, a strong sideways rain truncated CenterStage singing competition winner J’Leigh Chuavin’s rousing vocal set. By the time the Josh Garrett Band took the stage half an hour later, the sun was shining on a dancing crowd drawn by the local blues guitarist.
Despite the hiccups, downtown Houma business owners expressed excitement about the festival’s potential.
“With the right weather and the right circumstances, this event is a smash for everyone downtown,” Brickhouse owner Kendal Brunet said.
Mark Bonvillian, who owns Downtown Balcony and Mahony’s Irish Pub, also said he believes the festival will help downtown establishments. “It’s great for business,” he said. “I just hope they can make it self sustaining.”
Nonc Nu and da Wild Matous perform from the Gulf Groove stage Sunday morning under clear skies, drawing a crowd during one of the few sporadic times of sunshine at the inaugural Best of the Bayou Festival.
