Swamp Pop Music Festival

From Swamp Pop Music Festival Website:

The Swamp Pop Music Festival is the first swamp pop event to grow from a grassroots concert to a professional festival.

Swamp Pop is its own unique genre of Louisiana music alongside Cajun, zydeco, and blues; imagine Cajun music with a rock-and-roll flair. In the 1950s, several swamp pop songs even reached the national charts. The festival features a number of these nationally known performers, along with Louisiana Music Hall of Fame inductees, South Louisiana Music Association award winners, and many more of the most popular swamp pop performers.

The event began in 1998 when Cody Marchand, a local swamp pop entertainer, approached his good friend David Eastridge with the idea for a fundraising concert. Davids beloved granddaughter, Sarah, had just been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF). Sarahs family was devastated by the news that she had a life-threatening illness. They did not want to simply wait and pray for a cure; they took matters into their own hands to find a cure for her by raising money to help support medical research.

Cody and David started the Swamp Pop Music Festival as a grassroots fundraising event in conjunction with the Baton Rouge office of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It has increased tremendously in popularity each year, and our goal is for it to become THE major summer event for the state of Louisiana.

The event has received state-wide recognition including Mr. Eastridge being named 2003 Volunteer of the Year by the Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals.