Whrrl-ing Festival International de Louisiane

If you have never had the pleasure to travel to Historic Downtown Lafayette, Louisiana during the last full week of April to be a part of Festival International, this year you can have the chance to experience it as never before.

First, let me explain a little bit about Festival International.  As they tell it, Festival is:

Festival International de Louisiane is a community-based, non-profit arts organization formed in 1986 to produce an annual visual and performing arts festival celebrating the French cultural heritage of southern Louisiana – primarily a combination of French, African, Caribbean and Hispanic influences. The largest outdoor, FREE Francophone event in the U.S., the Festival places special emphasis on highlighting the connections between Acadiana and the Francophone world. Each year performing, visual and culinary artists from Europe, Africa, Canada, the Caribbean and the Americas are invited to share their talents with Louisiana artists, residents and visitors.

Since its creation, Festival International de Louisiane has become famous as a premier presenter of some of the most unique world musicians and performances in the United States. Popular Louisiana artists such as Aaron Neville, Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Allan Toussaint, Zachary Richard, Sonny Landreth, Beausoleil, Buckwheat Zydeco, Boozoo Chavis, Amedee "Bois Sec" Ardoin, D.L. Menard, Terrance Simien, C.J. Chenier, Geno Delafose, Marc Broussard, Marcia Ball, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Canray Fontenot and Buddy Guy have all performed on our stages.

To me, Festival is 5 days with 350,000 people and 500 bands from all around the world all gathered right outside the front door of my office.  Festival is good food, good friends and a great time.  Festival is laid back and relaxed.  Festival is 7 stages of music.  Festival is street food on every corner.  Festival is kids playing in the fountain in the park.   

During Festival we become very popular with an office right in the center of it all.  We represent a bathroom with no line, a place to change the baby's diaper, a quiet place to rest up and plan which stage to visit next.  

We LOVE Festival.

But this year we are going to enjoy it in a whole new way.  One of our favorite people, Justin Bacque, has introduced us to Whrrl.  And we love it - well, them - both Justin and Whrrl.

Whrrl is an app where people can collaborate on a story with photos and text in real time and share it online through Facebook, Twitter and the web.  It uses the gps on smartphones and there are mobiles apps for Iphone and Blackberry so everyone at an event with the app can all tell the story from their perspective. 

So, we are going to Whrrl Festival.  If you are in Historic Downtown Lafayette this week, be a part of the story.  Download Whrrl and jump in.  If you aren't able to travel here for the festivities, be a part of it online.  You can friend us on Facebook or Twitter and then check out the story as it is unfolds.  

Please comment as we go.  The more participation the better.  We want this to be a community event.  Tom Martin did a great job of sharing his Mardi Gras experience through Twitter.  This will be like that but with a dozen of us all contributing to the same story.

Cross your fingers and let's see how it turns out.

Jaci Russo

Sr. Partner

The Russo Group