Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, the world’s largest free Cajun and Creole music festival held annually in Lafayette, announced plans to come back stronger than ever in 2022. The festival was presented as a virtual event in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and was postponed in 2021 due to a surge of COVID-19 infections.
This year’s theme, “Le Grande Retour” or “The Great Return,” promises a tour de force of Cajun and Creole musicians and an immersive cultural experience filled with flavorful South Louisiana cuisine, crafts and workshops. The festival committee has planned two festivals in one year: March and October. The last time Festivals Acadiens et Créoles was held twice in one year was in 1980.
“In 2021, when we felt it best to postpone our event for health and safety reasons, we decided to hold the makeup in March 2022, in part to honor our own roots,” says Festivals founder Barry Ancelet. “Festivals Acadiens et Créoles was born in March of 1974 as a special concert sponsored by CODOFIL. We are now, of course, a larger, more complex outdoor affair, filling Lafayette’s Girard Park with a wide range of Cajun and Creole music, dance, cuisine, crafts and visual arts. But the spirit of that first self-celebration is still what guides us every year as we prepare and present our annual event.”
CODOFIL is the acronym for the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana. Created in 1968 by the state legislature, CODOFIL is empowered to “do any and all things necessary to accomplish the development, utilization, and preservation of the French language as found in Louisiana for the cultural, economic and touristic benefit of the state.” The agency supports Louisiana’s francophone communities through scholarships, French immersion and various other community and language skill-building programs.
Festivals Acadiens et Créoles was officially established in 1977. Since then, the event has grown into a multi-day affair taking place during the second full weekend of October each year in Lafayette. Festivals operates as a nonprofit corporation and is run by a community board and volunteers.
The full-scale, spring festival will take place in Girard Park from March 18-20, 2022. The music lineup will be announced on February 3.
Other festival-related events in Lafayette will include the official race Tour des Attakapas, Atelier workshops to be held at the Hilliard Art Museum, Bayou Food Festival, Louisiana Craft Fair and more.
The official pin and poster will be revealed at the Hilliard Art Museum on February 11 at 6 p.m. Tent rental spaces in Girard Park are available and volunteers are needed over the three days. Signups for both can be found at festivalsacadiens.com.
