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October 16, 2005
Accordions
A good babysitter is a wonderful thing to have. And since we have one, Eric and I have been going out without kids regularly. Last night we went down to the Riverwalk. We usually only do this when people are in town visiting because it's easy to get Riverwalk overload. But as I was scanning the entertainment section of the newspaper, I noticed that the International Accordion Festival was being held at La Villita this weekend.
When I first saw it listed I imagined oompah bands and Lawrence Welk type music. (Not that those aren't valid forms of entertainment) I was intrigued enough to check out the website for more information and saw that all types of music from zydeco to western-tinged polkas would be performed.
Obviously we decided to go. On our way to dinner we briefly saw Los Garcia Brothers and was introduced to Conjunto. We then sat down and ate really bad, over-salted Mexican food but had really good double frozen margaritas. Plus we got a table right on the river.
After dinner we saw two bands: Brian Marshall and the Texas Slavic Playboys and Le Vent du Nord. The latter band was definitely the highlight of the night. They were Quebecois* from Montreal. They were incredible and I don't think it was just the double margarita talking. They really rocked out playing their traditional farming folk songs. They had the whole crowd enthralled.
I plan on going to this festival again next year!
*I looked up "French Canadian" on Wikipedia and learned that it is not appropriate to loosley use that term to describe someone. I read that, "This is, in fact, offensive to many Canadians of French descent who identify strongly with the terms Québécois, Franco-Ontarian, etc., as cultural identities which are not casually interchangeable with each other."
Posted by Julee at October 16, 2005 10:41 PM
Comments
I'm not a fan of accordians but that looks like a cool festival
Posted by: Yolanda at October 17, 2005 07:36 PM
reading your web page is like going on a trip; you have a real talent for making it fun to go with you on your outings. love you G
Posted by: granny at October 17, 2005 09:53 PM
We went to this about three years ago and had a great time. Of course, around here, because of a foolish purchase I made, every day is an accordian festival.
Posted by: kcb at October 17, 2005 09:55 PM