After 50 years, Festivals Acadiens et Créoles has become a hallmark of Lafayette’s cultural calendar. This year, organizers have embraced the half-century milestone as an opportunity to simultaneously look back on the festival’s roots and ahead toward its future.
Playing a crucial role in both, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette remains a consistent throughline in the evolution of the event since its beginning in the spring of 1974 as a standing-room-only concert at Blackham Coliseum.
Dr. Barry Ancelet, now a professor emeritus of Francophone studies at UL Lafayette, helped orchestrate the first festival — originally conceived to impress a crew of French journalists — through his work with the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL). A few months later, Ancelet received a bachelor’s degree in French from the then-University of Southwestern Louisiana. He has been a driving force behind the event ever since.
The annual festival eventually moved to Girard Park, and Ancelet became a folklorist, researcher and professor in the University’s Department of Modern Languages. Ancelet said the festival evolved into a platform to showcase the research being done in his department and the Center for Louisiana Studies.
“The festival was one of the big reveals, one of the big annual events, that shared what we were learning about Cajun and Créole music on a really big scale,” said Ancelet.
Ancelet said from the beginning the festival was about elevating Cajun and Créole music and giving it the same prestige and attention in its own community as it enjoyed at folk festivals around the country. Now, performers from Acadiana still draw from the archives of those early festival performances. The Center for Louisiana Studies houses these archival shows and continues to collect recordings from each festival stage to this day.
“Live performances as a musician are just different than recorded performances, because you have the interaction from the crowd, and that's a lot of what playing music is about, especially for traditional music,” said Megan Brown Constantin, assistant general manager at KRVS 88.7 FM, the University’s public radio affiliate. “Because you're playing for the audience.”
Constantin, who has played as a musician on multiple festival stages and taught in the University’s traditional music program, said she still remembers the thrill of announcing bands at the festival as a student in UL Lafayette’s French program.
“For me as a musician and as a French student, it brought a lot of the culture that I was listening to and learning about to life,” she said.
Constantin said KRVS broadcasts Festivals Acadiens et Créoles live through its FM station and live stream, which is accessible around the world, as part of its public service mission. “We have a commitment to broadcasting the sound of this region, and this festival captures a lot of that,” she added.
Nathan Williams Jr., better known by his stage name, Lil’ Nathan, has played the festival for the past decade. Williams earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UL Lafayette and taught accordion in the School of Music. He said as a music instructor, he regularly encouraged his students to attend and perform at the festival. He said he is grateful for the annual event because it provides a combined platform for Cajun and Zydeco music that audiences can appreciate together in one place.
“It's very important, and it's influential, because we also have so many diverse generations of Cajun and Zydeco musicians. You have the older generation, you have the younger generations, and you get a flavor of each of them,” said Williams.
At the recent symposium preceding the festival’s 50th anniversary hosted by the Center for Louisiana Studies at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, the festival’s original founders gathered to discuss the intentionality behind the festival’s programming throughout the years. Organizers agreed that the festival’s commitment to honoring tradition while intentionally spotlighting new generations of artists has contributed to its long-term success.
Additionally, education, or “edutainment,” (as Ancelet is known to call it) serves as a backbone that has helped to preserve and promote Cajun and Créole culture. Museum exhibits, lectures, film screenings and panel discussions have enhanced the festival’s live music throughout its history. The Center for Louisiana Studies has played a major role in spearheading these efforts.
John “Pudd” Sharp, the center’s assistant director for research, said the festival draws people from around the world to Lafayette, and these same people attend the educational programming to learn more about the stories behind the music. However, it’s the echo of applause from the hometown crowd that has always set the festival apart. Sharp said seeing the University community, especially, engage with the region’s music and culture adds significant value to the event each year.
“That kind of University support helps people understand the importance of the festival,” said Sharp. “It helps people understand the importance of who we are and what we do.”
The 50th Festivals Acadiens et Créoles takes place in Lafayette's Girard Park on Oct. 11-13.
Photo captions: (From top) The Balfa Brothers with Nathan Abshire perform at the first festival in 1974 at Blackham Coliseum in this photo by Philip Gould. / Dr. Barry Ancelet at the festival in 2023. / Megan Constantin (left) with members of the KRVS team at the festival in 2023. / Lil' Nathan performs at the festival in 2018. / Festival founders speak at a symposium celebrating the festival's 50th anniversary hosted by the Center for Louisiana Studies. / Members of the traditional music student ensemble perform at the festival symposium. Photo credits: (From top) Philip Gould / Courtesy of the Center for Louisiana Studies, Paul Kieu / University of Louisiana at Lafayette