Rant

We can do better

BY CLARKE GERNON JR.

South Louisiana has many musical and cultural gifts to present to the world. This is evident every year at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Festival International de Louisiane in Lafayette.

Jazz Fest, now in its 37th year, has long had a powerful impact on the city’s economy and identity, while simultaneously distilling our cultures—both Louisiana and American—into a tidy two weekend event attended by people from all over the country and the world. It is not a stretch to say that Jazz Fest has become the definitive American cultural festival.

International Festival, which reaches its apex the last weekend of April, is a relative newcomer to the festival world. Started in 1986 with a primary focus on bringing together the Francophone cultures of world to French Louisiana, it too brings many people from outside of Lafayette and Louisiana.

I used to think these two festivals existed in opposition, competing for attendees, until I read a recent article in the Times-Picayune, which stated to the contrary that they actually partner to bring artists with appeal to both festivals. These two festivals, with different, yet connected missions occurring on the same weekend a two-hour drive apart, see their effort as a regional one. They are not competitors, but collaborators.

This seems like an opportunity for Baton Rouge. With a regional cultural event already between Lafayette and New Orleans the last weekend in April, Baton Rouge is in a prime position to do a similar thing with the Crescent City the first weekend in May with its own individual, yet connected festival. Two weekends, three cities, hundreds of performers, hundreds of thousands in attendance all in the pursuit of our unique Louisiana culture, this could be an incredible tourism and economic engine for our city and this region.

The obvious vehicle for such an event is FestForAll, and live music is the anchor for any great festival. However, the organizers resist growing that aspect of FestForAll. The Blues Stage, sponsored and guided by the Mayor’s Office, is the strongest musical element of the festival, yet it seems out of sync with the rest of the event.

Worse yet, there is something about our festival that seems decidedly “small town.” Perhaps it is simply the name or more troubling, a lack of vision. Regardless of how you look at it, it is pretty amazing that FestForAll was started in 1973, a mere three years after Jazz Fest’s inaugural year and 13 years before International Festival. As our state’s capital and largest city, we can do better.

I hope FestForAll organizers, or perhaps another organization with a new festival in mind, will take a more visionary approach and recast the first weekend of May in Baton Rouge into something remarkable. As evident in these nearby festivals, South Louisiana is already the place to be in late spring. Baton Rouge needs to make sure it is on that map come next May.

Arts for everyone

BY DEREK GORDON

About five years ago, members of the Baton Rouge cultural and civic community asked the Arts Council to revive FestForAll, a community-based, volunteer-driven, family-friendly tradition that celebrates the visual and performing arts under the oaks of downtown Baton Rouge. Unlike neighboring festivals in New Orleans and Lafayette, this event has existed under the aegis of a variety of organizations since 1973. Attempts to replace the free festival with a gated, ticketed music event in 2000 and 2001 proved less than viable and unpopular. This year’s 30th anniversary celebration belies the 34 years since its inception and the five years under the renewed management of the Arts Council.

With a $150,000 budget, FestForAll has more in common with Festival International (a $600,000 free, regional celebration) than with the $16 million Jazz Fest juggernaut. Both festivals have enjoyed consistent management, healthy funding and a single-minded commitment to maintaining their identities.

As the Arts Council continues to reinvigorate FestForAll, we welcome suggestions that will make the celebration a unique experience embraced by the local community and the region. I recently spoke with Don Marshall, CEO of Jazz Fest, and Dana Canedo, director of Festival International, and both expressed a willingness to work more closely with the Arts Council.

The mayor and Metro Council’s support for the Blues Stage has been most welcome. Now, it’s one of the most popular aspects of Fest¬ForAll. The Blues will continue to play an even greater role in defining its character and personality.

This year’s festival also presented roots/traditional music, jazz, and contemporary performances on two additional outdoor stages. Classical music, dance and theater were featured in nearby indoor venues. Scores of local and regional performers participated, including the Gangbé Brass Band from Benin (a cross-booked act featured at Festival International), and our own beloved Alvin Batiste, who gave his final public performance at FestForAll.

More than 80 visual artists and numerous food vendors participated in the festival, racking up more than $250,000 in sales. Applying the arts industry multiplier to more than $400,000 of total, direct FestForAll spending suggests an economic impact is more than $1 million. Not a bad return on the city’s $50,000 investment.

But perhaps more importantly, FestForAll represents Baton Rouge’s desire to embrace the visual and performing arts and to ensure residents and visitors get to experience them without economic or social barriers. If that is “decidedly small town,” then so be it.

Having only recently attained its distinction as the state’s largest city, Baton Rouge is challenged with how best to sustain the qualities that make it a desirable community while rising to the inevitable demands of growth and economic development. The Arts Council is committed to building a broader cultural vision not only for FestForAll, but also for the entire Greater Baton Rouge community. This fall we will hold a variety of “community conversations” to engage the community in a lively dialogue about the arts in Baton Rouge. I’m sure FestForAll will be a topic of interest, and we look forward to a productive conversation.