Esma Orgeron
July 2, 2007
NSU business college dean elected to state CPA board
July 4, 2007Ten years strong … and growing stronger.
That’s the best way to summarize the meteoric success of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s annual Deep South Crane and Rigging Swamp Pop Music Festival, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Friday and Saturday, July 20 and 21, at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center’s air-conditioned Trade Mart Building in Gonzales.
Gates for the event open at 5 p.m. on Friday night and 10 a.m. on Saturday.
“We’re expecting between 6,000 to 8,000 people this year,” said Erin Oubre, administrative coordinator of the festival. “It’s really popular and gets bigger and bigger each year.”
This year’s lineup of live entertainment features musical incumbent Wayne Thibodaux – “Louisiana’s Rockin’ Fiddler.” He’ll be joined on stage by the Don Rich Band, Van & Grace Broussard and a slew of other Swamp Pop artists.
Festivities will also include a two-day jambalaya cook-off, a classic car show and a motorcycle poker-run.
Jambalaya, hamburgers and other concessions will be made available to all attendees.
“”It takes a lot of time (planning the festival), but it’s well worth it,” Oubre explained. “We have a lot of generous donors who help us get food and drinks, and we have a lot of generous volunteers who help us man the food tables and ticket booths.”
The Swamp Pop Festival was launched by David Eastridge upon discovering that his granddaughter, Sarah, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.
Eastridge and musician Cody Marchand teamed up to organize the first musical festival in 1997 with the naive expectation that it would be a one-time event.
After raising $30,000, however, they couldn’t resist bringing it back for another year.
Then they brought it back for another, and then another…
In time, it grew into the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s largest attended event in the country. Ninety percent of all revenues are earmarked for cystic fibrosis treatment and research.
“”When we started this, no one knew what CF was,” Eastridge said in a press release. “It is a household name now. This event has brought recognition, education and awareness of CF to the public.”
For more information, visit www.swamppopmusicfest.com.
