Walking in, I'm glad to see that the two main stages are actually in tents, so even if the rain decided to follow me from Dallas, the show could go on. The tents could probably each hold close to a thousand, and the crowds don't seem that big today. Inside the tents, there's about 20 yards of dancing room up front, and the rest is filled with chairs tables and chairs. There's a smaller third stage, outdoors, the Bayou Stage. It's billed as a showcase for Louisiana based artists singing the blues, but the only band I saw there was covering Credence, Steely Dan, and Skynyrd instead.
The Fest itself was spread over an area called the Shreveport Festival Plaza. Besides the three stages, there were long rows of food vendors, a few crafts vendors, and a couple of attractions where you could get flipped upside down, flung into the air, or hit in the face with a water balloon. I'd wondered about bringing a chair, since, again, the fest website gave no clue. I did see a few folks with lawn chairs, but it's not really needed, as there's plenty of chairs available inside and adjacent to the tents. And the Plaza is all concrete, so don't even think about bringing a blanket to sit on. One big plus of the Plaza location is the availability of real bathrooms, with real flush toilets and running water: no port-o-johns at this festival.
The food rated about a B+ for selection, but maybe a C for execution. There were several crawfish vendors, all priced the same, so I picked one at random. For a festival celebrating the mudbug, they were disappointing, especially considering 2003 was a very good crawfish year. Mostly small, some off-color, maybe undercooked or overcooked. The Nacogdoches Meat Pie was better, not as good as the ones at Jazzfest, but you just don't get those at all at festivals in Texas. Jambalaya was tasty but mushy. Also seen but not tried, various kinds of shrimp, alligator, and catfish, plus the usual Fest crap that we get here in Texas: funnel cakes, corn dogs, blooming onions, roasted corn, and turkey legs.
Oh yeah, the music. Rosie was good. Rosie's always good. Her rubboard player kept exhorting the crowd to dance, which was fine though largely unsuccessful. Of the 200 or so in the crowd, maybe 10-15% got up and danced, mostly for one song before sitting back down. He also reminded the crowd during every song break that they had CD's for sale. Nine times at least, during the first hour-long set. That got a little tiresome. There was a 20 minute break (to sell CD's, I guess), and a 40 minute second set.
The Radiators were scheduled for two 75 minute sets with a half hour break. They started 15 minutes late, annoying mostly because I knew I had a long drive home waiting for me. When they started into the first song, Walk on Gilded Splinters, I quickly forgot my agitation. A great song, and you just don't hear Dallas bands covering that one very often. I saw the Radiators do a short set at Tipitina's a few weeks ago, and this show wasn't up to that standard. It was still good. I plan to see them again next weekend up in Jersey, so one set was enough - better to be driving home until 12:30 instead of 2 am.
