The Daily Advertiser, Weekend Guide
Lafayette, LA - November 10, 2006
by: Herman Fuselier

A CAMPIN’ GOOD TIME
New festival stirs the pot on outdoor fun

In Louisiana, there are festivals for everything except mosquitoes, polka and pregnancy tests. But that could change next week.

Festivals have the usual music, food, crafts and rides. But few, if any, allow camping and cookouts around an open fire.

Linzay Young and Chas Justus of the Red Stick Ramblers would like to change that. In their travels around the country, these musicians have seen the drawing power of good food on a warm fire surrounded by good music.
|
“What hadn’t been in Louisiana festivals is the whole camping and playing music aspect,” said Justus. “You see it with old-time and bluegrass music and it’s such a big attraction for people to come.

“The performance is almost an afterthought to the community and people hanging out and playing music. There’s space for festivals to do that.”

A camping good time is expected at the first-ever South Louisiana Blackpot Festival and Cookoff today and Saturday at Acadian Village. The festival features live music from 14 bands whose musical styles include Cajun, Creole, old-time country, bluegrass, jazz, swing, blues, Irish and more.

Tent camping and after hours jam sessions are encouraged. Small fires and barbecue pits will be allowed in the campsite and RV areas.

The event also includes an accordion contest, square dance and a black pot cookoff with amateur, restaurant and non-food business divisions. Categories for the cookoff, set for noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, include best sauce, best jambalaya and best gratons (cracklins). A first-place prize of $100 will be awarded in each category.

Yound and Justus said the festival underscores the impact of the black pot in local cuisine and culture.

“It just makes everything taste better,” said Young. “It’s good for cooking out on an open fire, which goes hand in hand with the camping.

“Cooking on an open fire, you can’t really do that in an aluminum pot.

A lot of the pots we have are handed down. I’ve got pots that have been in my family three generations.”

“When we travel, we brought the black pot with us,” added Justus. “We play at festivals in Virginia and North Carolina, something about cooking and eating and have something that everybody can do together like that is really nice.

“You’re camping and somebody is cooking, everybody goes where the cooking is.”

Festival fans will also go toward the music, which includes a rare local appearance by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason. Ungar and Mason are renowned acoustic musicians who specialize in Appalachian, Cajun and Celtic fiddle tunes, Civil War classics, swing, country and more.

Their Ashokan Farewell from Civil War, Ken Burns’ hit series on PBS, earned them international acclaim.Ungar and Mason’s appearance at the festival is part of the old-time music theme of the festival. The Red Stick Ramblers, Lost Bayou Ramblers and The Figs, an all-girls group from Lafayette, are among the young musicians specializing in traditional American music before they were born.

Justus said the old-time music is a refreshing change.

“Traditional music is something that hasn’t been touched by commercial marketing and homogenized. It’s pure, like getting together and playing the music.

“That’s what we’re trying to do with the festival, is bring that traditional music kind of scene. It’s not American Idol or dancehall. It’s the kind of thing where everybody can get in there, get involved, hang out and jam.

“That’s so inviting to people. It’s lacking so much in their everyday life.”