It had been six years since I last attended the Blast from the Bayou Cajun Zydeco Music Festival.  Over the years my RV travels conflicted with the schedule for this early June festival.  But without any major trip this spring, I decided to go back and do some dancing and reconnect with friends.

Festival Background

This festival is held at the Strawberry Park campground in Preston, CT.  This is a large RV type resort which caters to seasonal residents.  There are a lot of amenities at Strawberry Park like pools, hot tubs, pavilions, food concession, pickle ball courts, excercise room, and a baseball field.  The festival makes use of a large covered pavilion and a stage amphitheater for performances.  Attendees can pay extra for an RV site or camp for free in the ball field or in a field just outside the park.

The top Cajun and Zydeco bands from Louisiana come to play at this three-day festival.  This years lineup included Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Geno Delafose, The Pine Leaf Boys, Wayne and Same Ol 2 Step, Dennis Stroughmatt and Creole Stomp, and Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys.  The focus of the festival is on dancing and its starts each day around noon and finishes at 11:00 pm.

Steve Riley (picture from 2017 Rythmn & Roots Festival

Jesse Leger singing a Cajun song

I parked my RV in the ball field with several others.  My solar panels worked great providing my electricity for the weekend.

My campsite in the ball field at Strawberry Park

Dancing with My Friends

I enjoy Cajun and Zydeco music.  It’s roots music with origins from French Louisiana.  It’s also perfect for dancing.  Cajun musicians typically play two steps, swings, and waltzes.  Zydeco has its own dance called the Zydeco which is like dancing a two-step in a bucket.

Another reason I came back to the festival was to reconnect with some of my dancing friends who I’ve met over the years.  I got to see and dance with several.  They included Cyd, Francine, Jennie, Sarah, Sharmell, and Vicki.  I also met up with other friends who I’ve met at other  festivals.  Overall, it was a good time with friends plus I got to shake the dust off on my dance moves.

My dancing friend Vicki smiling for the camera

My Camera Focus

As you know, cameras accompany me on any RV trip.  In the past year, I’ve been concentrating on shooting more video.  It’s been a new skill to learn and I really enjoy making videos.  This festival put restrictions on video and audio recording of the artists and music.

So, I decided I would focus on capturing images of dancers on the dance floor.  I wanted to capture the joy of being on the dance floor.  So my focus for pictures was on faces and feet.

I did make a video which included some clips on the campground, some dancing clips, and a slide show of people on the dance floor. You can see it below.

It was fun trying to capture candid emotion on the dancers faces. Shooting the feet was also a fun exercise.  I had to change my camera settings and shoot in manual mode with a fast shutter speed to avoid blur from the people moving.  I took over 100 pictures and ended up with about a dozen that were really good shots.  But that’s the challenge and fun of photography.

Overall, I had a blast at the Blast from the Bayou.  I hope my schedule lets me go back next year.