NATCHITOCHES – Music, food, crafts and storytelling brought together performers, artists and tradition bearers from across Louisiana as the 46th Annual Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival returned to Prather Coliseum on Saturday.
Hosted by Northwestern State University’s Louisiana Folklife Center, the festival showcased the people and traditions that continue to shape Louisiana’s cultural identity. This year’s theme, “America the Beautiful,” explored the many musical and cultural influences that have contributed to the nation’s history while highlighting Louisiana’s diverse traditions.
“The Folk Festival started in 1980 as a way to bring folk experiences to people in Louisiana and surrounding states,” said Dr. Shane Rasmussen, professor of English, director of the Louisiana Folklife Center and director of the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival. “We have crafts, music, authentic folk foods. This is an opportunity for people to encounter the folk and their traditions, which is really about encountering their neighbors.”
The festival featured three stages of live music, more than 100 traditional craftspeople, the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship, Cajun and zydeco dance lessons, KidFest activities, narrative sessions and demonstrations throughout the day.
Among the featured artists was Marty Young, director of the Pioneer Heritage Center, who demonstrated the traditional craft of blacksmithing.
“Blacksmithing is the art of forming and shaping metal. It’s an old craft that’s been around for thousands of years,” Young said. “No community in Louisiana or across the United States ever thrived without having a blacksmith available because anything that had a metal piece on it, the blacksmith was the guy who made it.”
Rasmussen said the festival gives visitors an opportunity to experience Louisiana culture firsthand by meeting the people who continue to preserve and practice traditional arts and customs.
“Folk tradition, folklife is alive and well, and really it’s kind of the heartbeat of our culture,” Rasmussen said. “You have so much variety of people and their ethnicities and folk groups and cultures, and they’re literally next door to us as our neighbors, but we don’t realize just how awesome they are. When they come here, they let it shine, and it becomes obvious. We get to encounter it and go, ‘Wow, that really is amazing.'”
The festival also featured performances by Native Nations Intertribal, an all-Native American song and dance troupe representing more than 10 tribal nations, and the Rising Dragon Lion Dance Team, which returned by popular demand. Visitors enjoyed Cajun, zydeco, blues, bluegrass, gospel, Celtic and country music, along with traditional dance performances and educational programs throughout the day.
“The whole tradition of keeping folklife alive appeals to me,” Young said. “Not everything has to be mass produced. It’s something that, once it’s lost, it’s lost and it won’t come back.”
Young said he hopes visitors leave inspired to learn a traditional craft and help preserve those traditions for future generations.
For more information about the Louisiana Folklife Center, visit nsula.edu/folklife or call (318) 357-4332.