2nd Annual Louisiana Swamp Stomp Festival
The entire region is invited to the second annual Louisiana Swamp Stomp Festival, slated for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 12-14, 2010. Swamp Stomp promises to be a unique, joyful celebration of south Louisiana culture.
Festival gates will open to the public at 3 p.m. Friday, March 12, in the parking lot adjacent to John L. Guidry Stadium (Family Day Site). Admission is $10 per day or $25 per weekend at the gate – free for children 11 and under.
The festival gates will open on Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. with the same daily admission charge.
With entertainment by local and regional bands; a variety of south Louisiana foods; several presentations on the history, culture and economic development of the region; and artisans demonstrating their crafts and selling handmade items, participants can expect a memorable event. (Just check out the photos from the 2009 inaugural festival.)
Among the musical talents scheduled to perform at Swamp Stomp are The Lost Bayou Ramblers; Geno Delafose & the French Rockin’ Boogie; and Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys.
The Lost Bayou Ramblers have toured through much of the United States, including performances at the International Country Music Conference in Nashville, the National Folk Festival, the Lowell Folk Festival, the Brooklyn 
Botanic Gardens’ Chile Pepper Fiesta, the New Orleans Jazz Fest and historic Preservation Hall. The Ramblers have performed internationally in France, Belgium and the Netherlands – and their most recent releases, the Grammy Nominated Live: a la Blue Moon (Swallow Records) and Vermilionaire (Bayou Perdu Records) are receiving critical acclaim across North America and Europe.
Whether performing in their native Louisiana or abroad, the Lost Bayou Ramblers passionately embrace their cultural and musical heritage, playing music intimately linked to the agrarian, working class lifestyle. Their music stems from a time before electricity, when the Gulf Coast’s incapacitating heat only amplified the backbreaking stresses associated with the toil necessary to sustain a successful farm. Indeed, south Louisiana’s work ethic was the natural force that ground through the Cajun ego, liberating in song the fervor and spirit of a people. The Lost Bayou Ramblers are like a snapshot of a bygone era. Their music is emotionally raw, intense – in a word, authentically Cajun.
Grammy Award nominee Geno Delafose, lead singer of French Rockin’ Boogie, has lived the life of a true cowboy. He relies on his traditional Creole sensibility for guidance in m
usic and divides his time between touring and operating his Double D Ranch outside of Eunice, La., where he breeds cattle and raises quarter horses. Unbeknownst to many northerners, who often reserve the image of a cowboy for white Anglo-Saxons, Creoles (African-American Francophones) also share in the rural roots of hard work and dedication to the land. Delafose epitomizes this cultural tradition. Born into a family of Zydeco musicians, at the ripe age of seven Geno picked up the rubboard and joined his father John Delafose’s band, the Eunice Playboys, an ensemble that Geno would one day lead. To this day, Geno still performs in many of the same dancehalls and churches that he visited as a child in his father’s group.
Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie are no strangers to the stage. Performing a rigorous 150 shows each year, Geno fuses his Creole roots and modern voice through his multi-accordion attack, playing the single-row and triple-row diatonic button accordions for more traditional “French style” tunes – and changing to piano accordion for pounding out contemporary Zydeco. He was awarded Best Zydeco Artist at the 2003 Big Easy Awards in New Orleans and nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the “Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album” category.
Steve Riley, leading the Mamou Playboys, grew up in the prairie town of Mamou where French is spoken on the street, the national holiday is Mardi Gras, and a poor family is one without a fiddler or accordion player. American popular culture was stealing Mamou’s children away when Steve took up the accordion and became his hometown’s favorite son. He plays a single-row diatonic instrument made by his cousin, famed accordionist Marc Savoy.
Steve concentrated on learning Savoy’s fiery, intricate style and the music of the Balfa Brothers. At age 15, he was noticed by Dewey Balfa, who invited Steve to join his band. In 1988, he and David Greely formed the Mamou Playboys, which rapidly gained prominence on the international folk scene without sacrificing the allegiance of Louisiana fans. In a land where accordion is king, Steve has inspired countless young men and women to follow him and keep Cajun music’s royal instrument alive.
Indeed, with artists like these, the 2nd annual Louisiana Swamp Stomp is guaranteed to be a rollicking good time. Nicholls invites you to join the excitement and help us to make this celebration a success. For more information, call (985) 448-4633.
For driving directions, parking information, sponsorship details and hotel discounts, see the menu to the left.