Bayou Festival Raises Money for Impoverished Children

Bayou Festival is the second in a series of articles about having fun in the sun in Long Beach, California.

After Hurricane Katrina left thousands of New Orleans area residents homeless, the city of Long Beach extended hospitality and assistance to displaced citizens. LB Cares website was created to track the various local fundraising activities focusing on helping Long Beach, Mississippi residents recover. The devastating hurricane did not create a sudden interest in the Bayou, as Long Beach has been hosting Bayou Festivals for 21 years. The Bayou Festival is one event of many during Long Beach's annual summer long Sea Festival.

The Bayou Festival features live blues, jazz, Cajun and zydeco bands performing on two stages with a large dance floor next to the main stage. The festival features a Mardi Gras parade, dance lessons, arts & crafts for the kids and a lot of fun in the sun, Long Beach style. Did I mention the food? Of course there will be delicious Cajun, Creole and other cultural foods from Louisiana such as crawfish, jambalaya, and gumbo beignets. It would not be unusual to find Jamaican beef or chicken jerk at a New Orleans Long Beach style festival.

This years Bayou Festival starts on Friday, June 24, 2007 at 6:00pm with N'Orleans at Night ending at 10pm. The festival reopens on Saturday and Sunday running from 11:30am until 10pm. In addition to N'Orleans at Night, this years Bayou Festival will feature a recreated French Quarter. Held at Long Beach's Rainbow Lagoon on Shoreline drive, parking will be available for $10.00 per day across the street at the Marina Green parking lot. Parking passes are only available online and space is limited. Better to use LB Transit or the Metro trains that stop a few short blocks north at the Transit Mall and catch a free bus to the festival.

Scheduled to appear on the main stage are:

Geno Delafose & French Rockin Boogie
Lil Brian & the Zydeco Travelers
Terry & the Zydeco Bad Boys
Kevin Naquin & the Ossum Playboys
Lee Benoit & the Bayou Stompers

The N'Orleans Traditional Jazz Band highlights the Mardi Gras parade.

Blues and Jazz bands scheduled to appear on the Club N'Orleans' stage are:

The Oscar Jordan Band
Gregg Wright Blues Band
Oozie Blues Show
Al Williams Jazz Society
Bobby Griffen
Cafe R & B
Zee Harmon & Mid South Blues Revue
Ernie Andrews
Candye Kane

For more information, directions and ticket prices visit the Long Beach Festival website. Proceeds from the Bayou Festival help fund child care services to low income families in Long Beach and surrounding areas. Volunteers from non-profit organization, Comprehensive Child Development, make this festival possible. So come, enjoy the music, dancing and food while helping out a worthy cause. That is how to have fun in the sun Long Beach, California style.

Long Beach "Guide for Vistors" including lodging information