La Fête d’Ecologie

Come discover, experience and savor La Fête!

La Fête is an annual, one-day festival with distinct Louisiana flair. This festival is a celebration of the amazing environment, rich history, and the unique blend of cultures found in the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary. This national estuary is the 4.2 million acres between the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers (including the City of Morgan City) and, much like its people, is truly unique. It is also the most rapidly disappearing area on earth and is one of the world's richest natural resources providing fisheries, rich farmland and oil and gas resources to the nation.

The Reason

No other place on Earth is disappearing as quickly as the Barataria-Terrebonne estuarine system. In the process, we are losing not only valuable resources, but also a natural flood-protection system that absorbs storm water before it can harm our low-lying communities. Many of us have heard about the alarming land loss rates so many times that we have begun to take them for granted, even as we worry every year about flooding. Fortunately, we can save our "terre-bonne," or "good earth," and our ways of life if we work together and make smart choices. The Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program invites you to join this effort now while we still have time to make a difference.

Activities

Traditional folk life artists, government agencies, non-profits and educational groups participate every year with interactive exhibits to teach children and adults about the history, culture and bounty of the environment, as well as their efforts to restore Louisiana's wetlands. Visitors can learn about traditional wooden toys, how to carve a duck decoy, recane a chair, and make a cypress paddle. They can also see how to make primitive weapons and hone the skills required to use them and see how to make their own cast net.

There are not many other places on Earth, if any, where visitors can show off their skills in a cast net throwing contest. And it is a well-known fact that La Fete is the only festival attended by the Cast Net King. This is the only time anyone can catch a glimpse of the mythological King who lives in the swamp, 45 minutes south of Thibodaux. He only emerges from the swamp to enter the cast net throwing competition in order to regain his title, and to raise awareness of Louisiana's disappearing wetlands. The Cast Net King also likes to eat the delicious food at the festival, like gumbo, beignets, hamburgers and homemade pies. There is much more food to sample, all of which are native dishes of Louisiana.

La Fête not only offers great food and music, but it also reminds visitors why the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary is an exceptional region to work and play in. The festival is all about music, ecology, heritage, home...it's about all of us.

Children's activities

• Wetland Jeopardy
• Build bird feeders
• Tou Lou Lou & Apple Snail Races
• Life Size Crab Trap
• Primitive Weapon Making
• Wood Carving
• Cast Net Throwing Competition
• Duck Calling Competition
• Cast Net King
• Estuary Painting and much more!

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