By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – There has always been talk about someone—anyone—creating a well-known music festival annually in the city of Slidell.
To date that has yet to happen, despite a host of small fundraising events that have occasionally pulled in a name artist to perform on stage.
This weekend—Friday, Saturday and Sunday, March 18-20—the first true effort to do something big musically in the city of Slidell will take place at the perfect venue for such an event.
Heritage Park, situated along the Bayou Bonfouca waterway with the historic train depot as a setting to the back, will be the site for the first annual Festival Bonfouca that has scheduled 17 musical acts beginning on Friday at 6:15 p.m. and continuing until Cyril Neville’s Royal Southern Brotherhood band takes the stage on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. to put a cap on the whirlwind of outstanding musical talent.
Festival Bonfouca is a production of MotherShip Foundation, a non-profit organization that began Bayou Boogaloo 10 years ago in New Orleans. Jared Zeller is president and founder of the MotherShip and took Bayou Boogaloo from a one-day, one-stage event in 2006 to a three-day, three-stage event in 2016 that brought 35,000 people to the fest.
Zeller was contacted two years ago by Slidell’s Lori Gomez, a member of the Camellia City Arts Advocates, who saw a news story about Zeller suddenly having unexpected permitting issues from New Orleans officials for his festival. She suggested he consider moving Bayou Boogaloo to Slidell, and although nothing began on the North Shore in 2014, it got Zeller thinking about a similar event at Heritage Park.
“When I met Lori in Slidell we went to Heritage Park since my events have always been about locating on the water and being environmentally aware,” he said. “I loved Heritage Park and thought it would be a place to consider for a second festival.”
Last year Zeller began working on the specifics and although not receiving support from the Slidell City Council in December, 2015 to make it a city sponsored event by reducing the $5,000 park rental fees he pressed forward with what he saw as the possibility of creating something special and long lasting.
Fast forward to the spring of 2016 and Zeller has made a huge investment in the hope for Festival Bonfouca to be the first year of an event that could grow and grow.
“I believe Festival Bonfouca can draw from several different regions. I hope we see people from Orleans Parish, the western side of St. Tammany and from Mississippi,” he said. “This is such a great location for a festival, not to mention the history of the train depot right behind us.”
Zeller said the first year of a new festival is always crucial to see if the public will support it. To make his own investment in the future of Festival Bonfouca he has booked over $50,000 in musical talent and is offering very low priced tickets.
Entry to the festival is only $5 for Friday, $10 for either Saturday or Sunday, or $20 for the entire weekend.
Not only will the park host non-stop music from Friday through Sunday night, but there will be art booths set up around the park, non-profit organizations included to draw support for their work, and plenty of food and drink concessions.
“As a non-profit organization our mission is to give back to the area. That means we want this festival to become successful for the bands, the artists, the vendors and the community,” he added.
Just as with Bayou Boogaloo, Zeller gives a portion of the proceeds from the festival to selected charity groups. This year’s benefactors include the Slidell Department of Cultural and Public Affairs Bayou Jam Fall Concert Series and Slidell Movie Nights, Slidell Department of Recreation Playground Canopy, and East St. Tammany Habitat for Humanity Veterans Build Program.
“This is created to be a true family-friendly event,” Zeller said. “If we have good support the first year we will only keep growing and aim for multiple stages in the future.”
Zeller said his Bayou Boogaloo event has donated money to charity groups every year, starting with $5,000 in their inaugural outing. The festival is estimated to have had over a $1 million impact on the surrounding area of Bayou St. John ever since its inception.
As an added feature of Festival Bonfouca there will also be a kids fishing rodeo on Saturday morning.
Headlining Friday night at the festival will be Bag of Donuts at 7:45 p.m. and Big Freedia at 9:15 p.m., followed on Saturday by Sonny Landreth at 6:45 p.m. and Marcia Ball at 8:30 p.m. to end seven bands that day. On Sunday, the Molly Ringwalds at 4:45 p.m. will be among the final bands out of six performers that day, before Neville’s band ends the festival at 6:30 on Sunday.
Zeller, 41, is a New Orleans native who worked in various professions for over 10 years, including industrial sales, real estate and teaching college classes. He always had a passion for music, he said, and began to promote several small events.
“After about 10 events I began to understand how to really make them work, leading to the Bayou Boogaloo at Bayou St. John in 2006. My first year of the festival could best be described as ‘organized chaos,’ but we learned more each year,” he said with a laugh.
Ten years later in New Orleans he has seen the fest go to three days on three stages, something he hopes will eventually happen in Slidell.
“It’s all about the community deciding this is a festival worth coming out for,” he said. “But we have invested more money in Slidell for the music this year than 10 years at Bayou Boogaloo. I hope we see a great first year for Slidell.”
Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at festivalbonfouca.com, including a VIP pass that includes a climate-controlled restroom, shade, reserved stage-front viewing for bands, catered food and a private bar. Children under 12 can enter the festival for free and children under 14 are admitted free with a parent.