Barry Ancelet, then 23 and a University of Louisiana at Lafayette student, was plenty worried on a stormy night at Blackham Coliseum 50 years ago this day. Stakes were high.
Assigned to work at the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, Ancelet and student worker Keith Cravey were charged that night with coordinating production of “Hommage A La Musique Acadienne,” a program that was organized to convince some 150 visiting members of the International Association of French-speaking Journalists and Broadcasters that Louisiana was an emerging hotbed of Cajun and Creole culture.
The idea belonged to James Domengeaux, a former congressman, local attorney, CODOFIL chairman and activist for the French language and culture in Louisiana and Dewey Balfa, a revered Cajun musician who suggested a community concert to display Cajun music to the visiting journalists. Paul Tate, president of the Louisiana Folk Foundation, led a committee that selected the performers.
As March 26, 1974 approached, word was that Cajun and Creole music aficionados and enthusiasts would pack the 8,400 seats. But, oh, that approaching storm was pelting Acadiana and the concert organizers feared the worst.
“Fifty years ago, something magical happened,” said Ancelet, longtime president of Festivals Acadiens et Creole, which grew and developed from that initial concert at Blackham. It’s been followed by a half-century of growth, development and creativity for Cajun and Creole music that continues today.
That fateful night, Cajun and Creole music enthusiasts streamed into the coliseum, filling the available seating, taking up additional seating behind the stage and onto the coliseum floor and all available standing room. Almost 12,000 people attended.
“Something happened that night. It pushed the start button. So many young people attended,” Ancelet said. “We had not expected high school and college students to show up.” And they had not expected almost 12,000 people.
But they arrived, despite the hostile elements, by the thousands.
Part of the mystery was how locals might react to Cajun musicians in a concert setting, on a stage instead in front of a small dance hall floor. Barred from dancing, concert goers listened instead, as a host of Cajun and Creole stars performed for short sets.
“We put on an experiment to see what would happen,” Ancelet recollected last weekend. “What happened then is still vibrating.” And the visiting journalists were enthralled.
Philip Gould, then a 22-year-old recent college graduate from California, knew something was up that night as he shot photos for the Daily Iberian newspaper, where he had recently been hired. As he worked, he said, he sensed something significant was happening but was not sure what.
“For me, I knew it was a big deal and that these musicians were stars, but I had no idea who they were," he said. That would change.
He found the performers — Nathan Abshire and Clifton Chenier, among them — “fascinating people” and learned that Chenier had a vibrant fan base in Gould’s native California. Many of his fans there were Creoles who had moved to California during World War II.
He schooled himself on Cajun and Creole culture and the ramifications of what was going on, befriending native French speakers who came to Louisiana to teach the language and he marveled at the continuing internationalization of the Cajun culture and Francophone cultures.
Ann Savoy, celebrated musician and Cajun and Creole music historian, said the events of that long-ago concert and the annual festival that grew from it changed Cajun and Creole music dramatically.
“The first concert had an ‘enormous impact’ on Cajun music because of the size of the venue and for its boost to Cajun pride,” she said. Suddenly, she said, Cajun musicians felt an acceptance that spilled out of the local dance halls and into the broader culture.
Her husband, accordionist Marc Savoy, was one of the celebrated performers who took the stage that night. And like others over the past 50 years, members of his family have become mainstays on the Festival Acadiens et Creoles stages.
Pat Mould, still a teenager then, sat in the crowd that night in amazement. Exposed to traditional Cajun music by his grandparents, who played it in their home and who danced in dance halls in Rayne, Crowley and Scott, he counted Cajun music among his favored tastes, which also included blues and rock.
Like Gould, Mould sensed something of great importance was happening at Blackham Coliseum as the storm raged outside. “It was an amazing moment to see those guys on stage,” he said.
The musicians included Jimmy C. Newman and Rufus Thibodeaux, Inez Catalon, Lionel LeLeux, Sady Courville, Dennis McGee, Marc Savoy, the Balfa Brothers, Bois-Sec Ardoin and Family with Canray Fontenot, Clifton Chenier, Nathan Abshire and Merlin Fontenot, Blackie Forestier and the Cajun Aces.
As amazing, he said, was that generations built on the work of previous generations for 50 years. Mould has been active in helping to direct the festival since its 31st year.
“What bands are doing is surprising, new, but it comes from somewhere,” Ancelet said, alluding to the continuing tradition.
“It’s one thing to fall in love with the music. But you have to deal with the lyrics. There are lots of contemporary performers, including those who have become fluent in French because they wanted to sing.”
He cited such significant and young local musicians from Chris Stafford to Louis Michot, Jourdan Thibodeaux, Bonsoir Catin, Feufollet and others.
“There is great energy among the young,” Ancelet said. “Some of the best creativity has come in the past 20 years.
The festival will kick off this anniversary year today, and continue it through the annual festival Oct. 11-13. Plans are underway this year to “celebrate and honor the past and inspire the future.”
He said the first concert represented a “countercultural movement” for Acadians and Creoles who brought “Cajun and Creole music from the honkytonks to the mainstage.”
“We did it, and the concert was a pivotal moment in our culture’s history. It marked the day our community and the world fell back in love with our unique culture.”
