Festival Report:
Rousing music, energetic dancing, and hundreds of friends, family and happy children filled the music pavilion of Alligator Bayou during Sunrise Over the Wetlands: The Festival to Save Alligator Bayou, held the weekend of Sept. 26-27.

We send our heartfelt thanks to the people in Louisiana and surrounding states who helped us put on this event and supported it from afar. Special thanks go out to the musicians,  dancers, artists, craftspeople and servers who brought the festival to life, especially our dear friends Eddy Allman, who organized the festival with FaceBook friends, and Debra Clark, a Richmond, Va. graphic artist who created the festival logo, fliers and art poster. Eddy, we are deeply grateful for your musicianship, and for Debra, who put the color in Sunrise Over the Wetlands!

Our deepest thanks also to Debra's friend, Oscar Donahue III (oscarofneworleans.com), who created a colorful, jazzy gator pin that says it all and is loved by everyone. Oscar's pins sell for $10 each, with half of that going to Bluff Swamp Wildlife Refuge.

We are also grateful to Moran Printing for producing a beautiful art poster of photographs by nationally known photographer and musician Clay Coleman. The poster was created and laid out by Debra Clark and Michael Stone Johnson.

Both of these artworks, which you can order here and on our homepage, keeps Sunrise Over the Wetlands going and will continue to raise funds to help save Alligator Bayou.

Alligator Bayou Commemorative Pin	Alligator Bayou Festival Poster Signed $20.00 Un-Signed $10.00

Environmental Awareness

We are delighted to say that the festival raised enough money to pay a percentage of the legal expenses involved in Alligator Bayou's fight to save the ecosystem and its animals. Most importantly, everyone's love and friendship lifted Jim and Frank's hearts.  

Organized by FaceBook supporters and friends of Alligator Bayou, Sunrise Over the Wetlands also succeeded in bringing public awareness to the water drainage issue and its ecological impact.

Fascinated crowds watched the live alligator, snapping turtle and bobcat shows put on by Jim Ragland, Frank Bonifay, David White and Jamie Brassett, and came to admire and love these remarkable animals as we do. People gathered in the Alligator Hilton bar to bid on nature and wildlife paintings, photos and posters (see contributors below), and to listen to photographer Bevil Knapp's compelling interview with Eddy Allman on her exhibit, "Louisiana Wetlands: Saving Our Soul."

Large audiences attended a series of keynote environmental presentations by National Geographic's Jon Bowermaster, Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper Paul Orr, and our own Frank Bonifay. Deep, heartfelt thanks to Marylee and Paul Orr of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) for their unwavering support and leadership in defense of Alligator Bayou – and congratulations on the excellent 23rd Annual People's Conference, which ended with members dining and dancing to Cajun music on Saturday night! We love you, Paul and Marylee!

Rollicking Music & Dance

The terrific Louisiana music, art, food and ecotalks brought new light to Alligator Bayou during Sunrise Over the Wetlands. On Saturday night, Tout Les Soir and Jambalaya Cajun Band touched hearts and brought people to their dancing feet, as our great friends Les Danseurs Cajun de la Louisianne, dressed in traditional Cajun costume, demonstrated the Cajun two-step and waltz. Special thanks to Jambalaya's Terry Huval for playing "Les Tites Yeux Noirs," a beloved violin song that was the highlight of our boat tour. (Hear it on the homepage.)

On Sunday, Sprite and the Practical Madman kicked off the music at 1:30 p.m. with a song written for Alligator Bayou and a soft blend of Cajun and Celtic music that mesmerized everyone. A terrific slate of high-energy bands followed: Lil' Hub & the Wheels, Ernest Scott & the Funk Children, and 3 Leg Dog with Leigh (Lil' Queenie) Harris, all of whom kept people clapping their hands and dancing into the night. Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys set dancers on fire with the rip-roaring Cajun music for which the band is known the world over.

Musicians and dancers, you touched our hearts and spirits. Thank you for donating your music and traveling from distant parts to show your caring support of Alligator Bayou.

A Family Event & Kudos for Kids

While the music played and the dancers whirled, dozens of children gathered under shade trees for artistic animal (and messaged) facepainting by Beverly Branum. Thank you, Beverly, for your talented hand, and you, Larry, for showing your Cajun wood carvings.

A very special thanks to teacher Terry Morel for showing kids how to create colorful watercolor paintings intended to "put water back in the bayou" – and for leading the children in prayers with that intention. Heartfelt thanks also to Malaura Blanchard, Kathleen Guarisco and friends who helped kids make gator crafts at another table, and to Troy Kleinpeter, who spent the entire afternoon photographing children and adults holding a baby gator.

Art & More

Thank you, Clay Coleman (claycoleman.tripod.com) for your funky guitar and generosity in donating the use of your photos for our fundraising art poster. You are a true Funk Child.

We can't say enough thanks for the hard work of art impressarios Jim Vogler, Michael Stone Johnson, Donna J. Smith and Debbie Price Dyess. You made the Art Exhibit & Silent Auction a wonderful success and a lot of fun for everyone.

Thank you, Will McNaughton, for donating the Save Alligator Bayou bumper stickers. People eagerly placed them on their car bumpers and drove away with the issue squarely in sight!

We also thank the print and broadcast media who so willingly covered this event – before, during and after it.

All of you and countless others made the festival a great success. Everyone left richer – in every way – than before. Enjoy these photographs and email us to submit your own.

Our thanks to these visual artists

Craig Black, Donna Braud, Peg Carbo, Clay Coleman, Art & Sally Conklin (Circa 1857), Karla Coreil, Chris Dore, Debbie Price Dyess, Chip Etier, Deb Fertitta, Raymond Fink, Mimi Fowler, Philip Gould, Louise Hansen, Helen Haw, Troy Kleinpter, Bevil Knapp, C.C. Lockwood, Dede Lusk, Anna Macedo, Henry Neubig, Sage Redding, Donna J. Smith, Jade Th'ng (Nekkid Girls Designs).

Raffle donors

Debbie Price Dyess, Larry Noel, and Louisiana Proud Press.

Live auction

Rigsby Frederick, Massage Emporium, Pearson's Luggage, and SAF Bazooka.