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New Orleans-Style Music and Food Festival Long Beach Bayou Festival Photos Video and Write-up
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New Orleans-Style Music and Food Festival Long Beach Bayou Festival Photos Video and Write-up |
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LONG BEACH: ° Bars & Nightlife ° Grand Prix ° Best Job at the Grand Prix ° Bars & Nightlife L.A. CITY GUIDE: NO
LAST CALL! Live Zydeco and Cajun bands, food and cold beer are highlighted in this article.
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Welcome to the Long Beach Bayou Festival!
Oops. Made a wrong turn and wound up in New Orleans. Or is seemed like New Orleans. Perhaps even a part of JazzFest. For there's live Cajun and Zydeco music, plenty of cold beer, Nawlens-style food and people sitting in party chairs in the grass soaking up the sun, sounds and suds.
In reality, it's the Bayou Festival in Long Beach, CA. Held each June – the 2009 event was the 27th and 28th – in Rainbow Lagoon parallel to Shoreline Drive, which serves as the front straightaway for the annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, It's a sampling of what makes New Orleans such a desirable place to visit, bringing Cajun Country to people in Long Beach and throughout Los Angeles and Orange County without them having to get on a plane.
To be sure, this is not JazzFest, New Orleans' venerable music festival. For one, people don't need a giant flagpole to mark their spot on the grass. But there are many similarities, New Orleans music lovers bring folding chairs and even tents to set up at the grass and one could shut their eyes upon hearing the music and imagine themselves at the Fais Do-Do stage.
A cold Budweiser or other Anheuser-Busch beer is never far away (this is a major part of the JazzFest experience and is certainly a pleasure at the Bayou Festival). Speaking of the beers, the selections are Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob Amber-Bock and Widmer Wheat. At $5, they are priced to move (tickets are required for purchase). There are two beer stations, each within easy earshot of the two stages. So call this a "junior JazzFest."
Of course, it would not be a New Orleans-style event without food. About a dozen vendors sell crawfish, pralines, shrimp po-boys, jambalaya and red beans and rice. Prices range from $7-12. Also, identical to JazzFest, trinket tents abound, selling clothes, jewelry, Mardi Gras masks, purses and hats.
After the festival – which runs from 11 a.m.-9 p.m., on Saturday, and until 8 p.m., on Sunday – there's no Bourbon Street in which to continue the party. But there is Pike Place, and the Mai Tai bar and Auld Dubliner are the top stops. In short, the event is a fun day fer sure! Admission to the Long Beach Bayou Festival is $35. The event's website is here.
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