A first-rate musical starring diverse players from around the world was on location in downtown East Lansing for anybody looking for a reason to clap their hands and shuffle their feet — rated G, for all audiences.
Starting Friday night, the Great Lakes Folk Festival was the main local attraction of the weekend, with bands providing clips of their musical heritage through Sunday evening.
Concertgoers didn't even have to show up early to get matinee prices — the three-day outdoor festival was free — but many fans did show up early because they were so excited.
"I'm psyched to the hear the Cajun/Zydeco music," said Haslett resident Heather Dykstra, 37, while sitting on a blanket on opening night.
Dykstra and her husband watched their two young children, ages 2 and 5, play in the volleyball court's sand while an Indian Sarod act, Aditya Verma, was setting up on the Valley Court stage.
This was Dykstra's first experience with the festival, and besides enjoying the music, she was happy just to have an opportunity to dance with her children in a friendly setting.
After allowing her kids time to play in their own little beach haven, Dykstra pulled them toward the Dance Stage in a wheelbarrow to shake a leg to Ron Likovic's Slovenian Polka tunes.
Not only were crowd members getting into the different acts, but fellow musicians were digging each other's tunes all weekend.
Twenty-two-year-old guitar player Julian Primeaux for Lil' Nathan & the Zydeco Big-Timers said Sunday that he really fancied the Juke Joint Swing set put on by Wayne Hancock Saturday night and generally thought all the acts really had it together.
Primeaux's band was unique to the scene because it was the only Zydeco band performing. He said a lot of people get Cajun and Zydeco music confused and think they are the same thing, but there is a difference.
"It's a little bit more driven and more upbeat than Cajun," said Primeaux, the Louisiana-native.
"(Zydeco) is more blues-based, and it's got a few more African elements. The accordion plays a lot differently than in most typical types of music. Plus, you have a rub board — what you call a scrub board," he said.
Primeaux also had the opportunity to sit in with Creole fiddle player Cedric Watson's Sunday set on the City Hall Stage.
After Primeaux was done entertaining the crowd with fellow Lafayette-native Watson, another Louisiana toe-tapper, Edwin "Eddie Bo" Joseph Bocage, hit the same stage with a roar from the packed tent.
But even before Bocage moseyed on stage, a fan came over to the piano bluesman and said, "You make me happy."
With a dark Hawaiian T-shirt on, Bocage calmly responded to the fan, while sitting on a fence.
"You have to know how to reach out to the audience. You can do it without saying anything," Bocage said.
With everyone from babies pulling off crazy dance wiggles to older couples swinging each other around, Bocage knows how to work a crowd.
As he introduced "Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu," Bocage gave the crowd a little comic insight into his earlier years.
"I have a confession to make: I was born next to a garbage dump. Everything is funky," Bocage said to an amused crowd.
Bocage wasn't lying either — he played checkers on the keys with guitarist Johnnie Bassett and R.J. Spangler's Motor City All-Stars backing him up. The crowd loved the performance so much that a standing ovation made an encore necessary.
With so many great acts from Louisiana already on the bill, it's hard to believe the festival could have drawn in another one, but 52-year-old Okemos resident Jim Banas was thrilled to hear Cajun band Feufollet from none other than Lafayette, La.
Banas saw the band perform in 2003 at the festival and was blown away by how talented and youthful they were.
He was also surprised that the band, comprised of all native French speakers of southwestern Louisiana, came back because the festival rarely ever has repeat performances. In any case, Banas was excited for Feufollet's performances and happy for what the event has done for the city.
"East Lansing has become a small cosmopolitan, and I'm very appreciative of that," he said.
