Norfolk, Virginia hosted its own Bayou Boogaloo Music & Cajun Food Festival for the 27th year this year, featuring some of New Orleans best art, food and music exports. Dr. John was the festival’s Saturday night headliner and also garnered one of the festival’s highlights when Marcia Ball joined him on stage for Let The Good Times Roll, while the good doctor played guitar. Anders Osborne headlined on Friday night. Besides playing along side long time bassist Carl Dufrene Jr., Anders had none other than Stanton Moore on drums and guitarist Scott Metzger with him as well. Moore helped drive the band, playing with such a musical connection to Osborne, that they left the festival faithful begging for more past the 10:00PM outdoor music curfew. Hitting before Anders was the reconstituted Royal Southern Brotherhood, who turned in a fantastic set proving Cyril Neville‘s meddle as one of the country’s greatest soul singers.
A Saturday highlight was turned in by the super-charged set of Brass-A-Holics, during which a second line broke out. Brass-A-Holics had the crowd so whipped up with their gumbo of old school hip hop, Go-Go and New Orleans brass band, that when the set ended there was a rush for the merchandise line, excited fans buying T-shirts and CDs, posing for pictures and grabbing autographs. Marcia Ball also played a stellar set, as did Norfolk Bayou Boogaloo new comers Jonathon Boogie Long, New Breed Brass Band and the New Orleans Swamp Donkeys.
There were also many food vendors and artisans from New Orleans on hand, bringing not just music but a full dose of much of the rich culture of Louisiana, up to folks on the east coast of Virginia.
All photos by Bob Adamek. Click here to view the full gallery on Flickr.
Photo by Bob Adamek
