If you love zydeco, then sooner or later you're going to have to take a trip to Southwest Louisiana, the heart of zydeco country. We've made many trips to Lafayette and the surrounding area, and every time we go we see old and new friends from the zydeco community who come from all over the world to enjoy the festivals, dance workshops, and the local dance halls. The ambience cannot be transported, and it's well worth the trip.
ZYDEKOOL WEEKEND
Amy & Frances at Geno's Ranch during ZydeKool weekend
(click picture for larger version)
A recent road trip was for this event organized by Frances Haymark, featuring Sean Ardoin and his new band ZydeKool and Geno Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie. This was an incredible weekend which included Friday night dinner and on to Slim's Y-Ki-Ki in the zyde-vans to hear Zydekool perform, a Saturday morning trip to Marc Savoy's accordion shop for the weekly jam session, followed by an all day barbecue at Geno's ranch and Grant Street Dance Hall that night, where both Geno and Sean's bands played with Leo Thomas as a guest performer. Sunday the zyde-van took the group to New Orleans to Swampfest, where Geno and Sean played along with many others. Frances made sure we had several great local dancers join us to make this a fantastic experience for everyone who attended.
Sean Ardoin & ZydeKool at Swampfest in Nola - Two Fingers in the Air!
ZYDECO EXTRAVAGANZA
This is one of my all-time favorite events, held every year on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. Running from 11:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m., it's an all-day, all zydeco event held indoors, in air-conditioned Blackham Coliseum in Lafayette. The two years that I have gone I have also attended excellent dance workshops on the Saturday before. The first one was taught by Michael Seider, organized by Missy Malone, and the second one, last year, organized by Frances Haymark and Rebecca Zurn, featured several local zydeco dancers as instructors. If you attend a workshop as well as Extravaganza, you will be dancing night and day from Friday night through Sunday night. In the evenings the dance halls feature the best local bands - the only drawback is having to choose which ones you will go to see. If you fly into New Orleans on Thursday night, which is what we usually do, then you can zydeco at Rock 'n Bowl before heading down to Lafayette on Friday.
This year Frances plans to put together another workshop and we will be organizing a group from South Florida to attend.
Stay tuned for descriptions and photos from other road trips that we have taken, including THE GIRLS' NIGHT OUT, FESTIVAL ACADIENS and COUNTRY MARDI GRAS.
