THIBODAUX — Nicholls State University will host the fifth annual Louisiana Swamp Stomp Festival, a musical celebration of south Louisiana culture, from Friday, March 22, through Sunday, March 24. Locals and visitors are invited to experience regional music, food, history and art at the campus festival, which has been named one of March’s “Top 20 events in the Southeast” by the Southeast Tourism Society.
Musical talents scheduled to perform this year include Treater, Don Rich, Horace Trahan and the Ossun Express, Waylon Thibodeaux, Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys, Junior LaCrosse, Bruce Daigrepont, Foret Tradition, Ryan Brunet and The Malfecteurs, Lafayette Rhythm Devils and Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie. Free Zydeco dance lessons will be offered an hour before the first band starts playing each day.
The festivities will take place in the parking lot adjacent to John L. Guidry Stadium. Admission is $10 per day, $25 for the weekend and free for children 12 and younger. Tickets will be available at the gates, which open at 3:30 p.m. on Friday and 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. For the complete festival schedule, visit www.nicholls.edu/swamp-stomp
New to this year’s festival will be the Jumbo Gumbo Cook-Off on Saturday, March 16, as well as a 5K Can-Can and 1-mile White Boot Waddle on Saturday, March 23. On Friday, March 22, Nicholls will once again host Tresors du Bayou, a free program featuring local artists, historians and craftspeople. The swamp pop band Treater will perform while dance instructors teach guests the Cajun Waltz, Cajun Two-Step and Cajun Jitterbug. The event will end with a free concert featuring Amanda Shaw and the Cute Guys. Details are available at www.nicholls.edu/swamp-stomp
The Louisiana Swamp Stomp Festival is part of the 15th annual Jubilee: A Festival of the Arts and Humanities, which is held every spring on the Nicholls campus. For a full schedule of Jubilee events, visit www.nicholls.edu/jubilee
The 2013 Louisiana Swamp Stomp Festival is supported by a Community Partnership Grant from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Foundation Inc.; a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council as administered by the Houma Regional Arts Council; a grant from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium for LUMCON’s Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program; Lafourche Parish, Louisiana Tourism Recovery Program; Peltier Foundation; T. Baker Smith; John Bowie – B&D Contracting Inc.; Louisiana Lottery Corporation; Jubilee; PRO-NSU; Thibodaux Regional Medical Center; Gulf Island Fabrication Inc.; A&G Refrigeration; Buquet Distributing; Entergy; and others. For a full list of sponsors, visit www.nicholls.edu/swamp-stomp/sponsors