At 200, Lafourche is ready to celebrate its heritage

This weekend, Lafourche Parish will be celebrating its 200th anniversary with an abundance of events taking place at the Raceland Recreation Center soccer fields.

From food to music, and historical lessons to displays, the bicentennial celebration will provide information and information as to how the parish has grown into what it is today, and where it may be going in the future.

Charlotte Randolph, Lafourche Parish President, said the event is an opportunity to learn about the past 200 years.

“It’s so very exciting,” said Randolph. “It’s an opportunity to celebrate all that’s happened in the past, and look forward to the future, at the same time. It’s also a chance to commemorate those events with … people who live here in Lafourche.”

The celebration starts at 10 a.m., and will last until 7 p.m., and offers a wide variety of Cajun-style foods for attendees to enjoy. Boiled crawfish, jambalaya, grillade po-boys and seafood gumbo are just a small number of foods that will be served.

“Oh my goodness, where do I begin?” Randolph said of attractions at the celebration. “We’re going to have old fire engines, archaeological information. The gym at the recreation center is going to be jam-packed. So will the 200-foot tent.”

There will be over 40 exhibits showcasing early life in Lafourche, as well as senior storytellers discussing the past. To highlight the agricultural industry in Lafourche, old farm equipment will be side-by-side with present-day John Deere sugarcane chopper harvesters.

Highlighting the Cajun culture will be a boat builder making a pirogue, and a Cajun toy-maker doing just that … making toys.

And keeping the entertainment fresh is a two-band stage. “There will never be any interruption in music,” said Randolph.

In all, 12 bands will play, including Southern Cross, Treater and Waylon Thibodeaux.

While the celebration will be commemorating the past, Randolph said it is also important to look toward the future. “I told some coastal people the other day that this is our first 200 years,” she said. “We intend to be around for a long time, so we’re going to continue working on all those projects that keep us around here.

“We’re that valuable to the rest of the country. So we need to stick around.”