Nancy Covey's
Festival Tours International

LOUISIANA MUSIC TOUR!

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

& Cajun Country Trip

Eunice - Erath - Vacherie - Lafayette

April 24 - May 4, 2008
 

 
Join us for an insider's trip to Louisiana * Stay in the heart of the bayou * Cruise down the bayou swamps * Experience the taste of the Cajun country at our annual private crawfish boil at the home of Marc & Ann Savoy * Enjoy a rockin' zydeco Bar-B-Q with Geno Delafose at his country ranch outside Eunice * Taste the best in Cajun cooking with renowned chef Patrick Mould * Roll into the exciting city of New Orleans for the best music festival in the world! "Jazzfest" has non-stop music with hundreds of musicians on 10 stages!

Come with us to eat, drink, dance & be merry
in the warm Louisiana sun!

 
 
"It's really wonderful that people like Nancy who have enough, what you might say, 'soul', that she can organize a really down-home trip like this for you folks where you can hear music and eat crawfish after going out and catching 'em for yourself. She really puts you in contact. You really get in the mud!"    ---  Marc Savoy

 
 
Nancy Covey's
Festival Tours International
15332 Antioch St., #17, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Fax/Tel (818) 346-5146    (310) 454-4080
E-mail: Festtours@aol.com

Frequently Asked Questions

To sign up for our trip
Download and print out our 2008 booking form and booking conditions

(PDF format file; free Adobe Acrobat reader required)



Catchin' crawfish

The Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band with Richard Thompson!

Richard Thompson taking a solo at the '99 crawfish boil!

Peelin' and eatin' crawfish!

Pass that baby alligator!

Geno Delafose, in his barn, performing at our BBQ

Michael and Sharon Doucet at the cooking class

Wade Frugé with Marc & Ann Savoy

Boiling the crawfish

Dance at the Liberty Theatre, Eunice
Steve & Mary get married!
D. L. Menard
Let's dance!

2008 ITINERARY for the Louisiana Music Tour

Click on each picture for a full-sized version with captions (from some of our previous trips).



Thursday, April 24 - New Orleans.
Check into our deluxe hotel, the Bourbon Orleans, located in the very best location, right in heart of the French Quarter just behind Jackson Square. Settle in, have a Sazerac or a mint julep by the pool or wander the colorful streets of the French Quarter.

Our tour officially starts tonight with a private dinner upstairs above the historic French Quarter restaurant, the Napoleon House. These charming and atmospheric Napoleon "apartments" are a well-kept secret with the locals for special occasions and we have the entire place to ourselves. We'll have drinks on the balcony overlooking the Quarter followed by a leisurely dinner -- a delicious way to meet everyone on the trip. If you still have the energy afterwards, head out to one of the clubs for some of that fabulous New Orleans music.

Friday, April 25 - New Orleans.
Today is the first day of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and what a great start it is! Music goes on from 11am to dusk on 12 different stages with the best names in everything from rock to reggae, blues, Cajun and zydeco, traditional and contemporary jazz, pop and world music -- you name it, it's played here! Over the 7 days of the festival there are literally thousands of musicians!

Check the Jazz Fest site (www.nojazzfest.com) for a full line up but some of our favorites for this great kickoff are Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Ellis Marsalis, Buckwheat Zydeco and Sheryl Crow just to name a very few.

We'll be giving you tickets for two of the three days of the Festival so that you will have one free day to enjoy the French Quarter. (If you want to attend all 3 days additional tickets can be bought from us ahead of time so you can save money over the steep Ticketmaster price.)

And with Louisiana specialties from over 40 food booths, it's a true feast for all the senses! At nighttime ... well, New Orleans just fills up with music in every club, concert hall and street corner. Between club hopping, dinner by some of the best chefs in the world and the Jazzfest during the day, your only problem is how to get some sleep! But when you're finally ready for that sleep or swim you can return to the comfort of our hotel, the Bourbon Orleans.

Saturday & Sunday, April 26 - 27 - New Orleans
Enjoy Jazz Fest all weekend. A boatload of great talent this weekend- just a sampling: Dr John, Billy Joel, Irma Thomas, Elvis Costello & Wynton Marsalis, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Al Green, Eddie Bo and hundreds of others. In fact just spending the day in the Gospel Tent is music enough!

If you haven't stuffed yourself enough at the festival make a dinner reservation in one of New Orleans fabulous restaurants to enjoy some of the world's best cuisine. Then hit the clubs for more music that goes on all night!

Monday, April 28 - Eunice
Our CAJUN TOUR starts bright and early today!

We leave the French Quarter behind and ahead out past Lake Ponchetrain through the bayous and into Cajun country. Starting the trip off right we arrive at Crystal Rice Heritage Farm and are greeted by the renowned (and entertaining) Cajun chef, Patrick Mould. After downing an Oyster Shooter we'll have a cooking demo to beat none other and some of the finest food of the whole trip- plus in between courses we'll be serenaded by none other than Cajun music's star fiddler, Michael Doucet. Life doesn't get better than this!

After lunch we'll have time for a look around the Cajun house, car museum and fields of Crystal Rice which has been a working crawfish farm since 1890.

Then it's onto Eunice, our base for the next couple of days. Tonight we're invited to the home of the great young zydeco musician Geno Delafose. Year after year Geno's band is voted Best Zydeco Band in Louisiana! Geno is hosting a down home Bar-B-Q just for us at his family horse ranch just outside Eunice. Last year we danced our feet off to one of the hottest zydeco jams ever.

Tuesday, April 29 - Eunice
At last a morning to sleep in (a bit!) then it's off to Eunice's tiny downtown where Marc Savoy will show us how he makes his infamous Crawfish Étoufée. You'll get a chance to visit the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center, the Cajun Music Hall of Fame, the famed Liberty Theatre and have lunch at one of the local dives before heading off to the Savoy Music Center for some time with the keepers of the Cajun flame -- Marc & Ann Savoy. Their shop is home to a renowned Cajun jam session and Marc is second to none in building Cajun accordions.

Afterwards we're invited to Marc & Ann's country home for our annual Crawfish Boil- a rare and special treat! This is one of the great parties of certainly my year and also theirs. It's not open to the public, but only guests of Marc and Ann's will join those of us on the tour. Spend a lazy afternoon under the trees listening and dancing to Cajun music, mingling with family and locals, drinking brew and eating obscene amounts of crawfish, potatoes and corn piled high on long wooden tables- even BBQ chicken. YUM!! No wonder Marc and Ann look forward to our trip there.

In the evening as the fireflies start to come out, Marc will undoubtedly organize one of his now infamous "nature walks" on their farm -- sometimes culminating in an impromptu dive into the lake. It's an incredible day and most people say it's the highlight of the entire trip.

Wednesday, April 30 - Avery Island/Erath/New Orleans
We drive down south onto Avery Island and a first hand look at how the famous Tabasco sauce is made. Enjoy hot tasting and some good shopping as well as a trip through the lush Avery Island.

Our last stop is a visit with with D. L. Menard, the "Cajun Hank Williams", at his home and chair factory. D. L. is sure to play some tunes for us in his backyard while we eat some of the local fare. There's no finer sendoff from Cajun country than a hollered "Bye y'all!" from D. L.!

We arrive back into New Orleans in time for dinner and a night of club hopping.

Thursday, May 1 - New Orleans.
Our FULL TOUR officially ends today. If you've signed up for our "Thursday Extension", which we recommend, then you're free to sightsee and relax in New Orleans or head out for another great day of the Jazz & Heritage festival, which has now started up for the second weekend. Thursday is my favorite day at Jazzfest, not to mention the French Quarter, as it tends to be far less crowded and a really wonderful atmosphere.

Friday - Sunday, May 2 - 4 - New Orleans
If you've signed up for the "Second Weekend Add On" we will give you tickets to 2 days of the festival so you can come and go as you wish. Additional tickets can be bought ahead of time from us. Some great acts this weekend including The Neville Brothers, John Prine, Richard Thompson, Diana Krall, Stevie Wonder, Dixie Cups, Bobby McFerrin & Chick Corea, John Hammond, Marcia Ball, the Rebirth Brass Band and so many more!
Nightime the festivities continue!

Monday, May 5 - New Orleans
Our tour officially ends after breakfast ...

Laissez les bons temps rouler!


Interesting links

Recall Music
Ellen Griffith's site promoting independent roots music, with a New Orleans Jazzfest photo feature.

Richard Thompson
The official Richard Thompson web site!

BeauSoleil
America's most popular Cajun group!

The Gumbo Pages
Festival Tours' web host.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!



Want to know more? Phone, fax or write to:

Nancy Covey or Joey Thompson
Festival Tours International
15332 Antioch St., #17, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Fax/Tel (818) 346-5146   (310) 454-4080
E-mail: Festtours@aol.com

Frequently Asked Questions

To sign up for our trip
Download and print out our 2008
booking form and booking conditions

(PDF format file; free Adobe Acrobat reader required)

Nancy Covey
Nancy Covey, our fearless leader!

 
"A trip on Nancy Covey's musical excursions is to get INSIDE the culture your visiting. She knows all the local musicians, all the local chefs, and you get steeped in an insider's view that can't be had if you're a tourist. It's better to wander lost, than to follow a map made by tourists. With Nancy you get extremely interesting traveling companions, a very happy stomach, and the soundtrack is unique regional songs played live! I'm a musician, and I had a blast!"    ---  John Densmore, percussionist.

"Nancy, the tour was beyond amazing. after listening to this music for so long, Randy and I could not believe what we were hearing and who we were seeing. The whole experience was overwhelming -- we were saying on the flight home that we were pretty much stunned and speechless a good part of the time those three days and nights.

The itinerary you've constructed is just great. You packed in so much, but we never felt rushed. We loved everything we did, but being at the musicians' homes, meeting them and hearing the music in those three different settings... wow, I still don't have words for that. The day and evening with the Savoys was particularly unforgettable. In fact, the whole thing was unforgettable!

Incredible music, incredible food (did we eat enough, you think?!), and some of the nicest folks we've ever met, both our fellow travellers on the bus and, of course, our hosts at every stop.

Our warmest thanks to you, Nancy. You're the kind of person who makes people feel they've known you always. What a great thing it is that you do. I know we would have made it to Cajun country on our own, but we would never have had the kind of experiences we had on the tour. And thanks, also, to Carole for keeping us all together.

How lucky that Michael Doucet gave us your flyer back in February. Please keep in touch. We would love to sign up again for next year.
   ---  Linda and Randy Green, Illinois, May 2004.
"We did Nancy's tour and stayed at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel. We found its central location in the French Quarter an ideal spot for our first trip to New Orleans.

We had read the article in Rhythms Magazine about Nancy's tour and went with high expectations, but nothing could have prepared us for it. It's an experience rather than a tour and no amount of words can prepare you; like sex, you have to do it to truly know what it's all about.

From the geniality of Geno Delafose and an evening of zydeco music, barbecue and dancing in his barn, to Marc Savoy's intense commitment to Cajun Culture ... Marc was the most gracious of hosts at his beautiful home, made so welcoming by the grace of his wife Ann.

I had heard stories about Nancy's crawfish boil at the Savoys' farm both in print and on air. Yet again it was so much more than one can comprehend; people were eating crawfish non-stop for well over an hour.

The final day included a magnificent lunch and Cajun cooking class in the gardens of Rip Van Winkle Homestead with the Cajun entertainer-cum-chef Pat Mould, and finished with a visit to the eccentric D. L. Menard, a further example of southern hospitality. It was superb.    ---  Tim Robinson, Melbourne, Australia, May 2005.
"Nancy's tour is the truest experience of Cajun food and music that you can get without being a local ... and I sure didn't feel like I was on a tour!"    ---  Chuck Taggart, Author/webmaster of The Gumbo Pages, music programmer/host of "Down Home", on KCSN 88.5 FM, Northridge / Los Angeles, Calif.

"Everyone should go on Nancy's trip at least once in their lifetime!"    ---  Sandy Miranda, host of "Music of the World", on KPFA-FM, Berkeley, Calif.

"We first went on Nancy's tour back in 1991 as an easy way to go to the Jazz Festival. We thought the Fest was the most fun you could possibly have, until we got to the Cajun country part of the tour ... we had to come on the trip again. And again. Each year, we thought "How can we miss it?" ... Each year, we went to the crawfish boil, easily the best party we've ever attended. Each year, we think we can't possibly have as much fun as last year. And yet, we do. Nancy always tops herself. Our all time favorite memory? The year we got married at the crawfish boil. Told you it was a good party!!"    ---  Steve Hochman and Mary Herczog. Read more about what they have to say!
"I had a great time in NOLA and Cajun country -- made some new friends, heard some great music and even got to dance. I definitely have a better appreciation of Cajun people, their culture and their music. Now I need a holiday to recover from the excess of life in the Big Easy. I'm back home now, back to the real world ... ho hum! Thanks again, Nancy."   --  Richard Shadforth, London, May 2005.

Email Nancy for more info on the Tour
Read more about Jazzfest, and
visit the Official New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival site

Festival Tours Home Page
Read about our previous music trips to England and Scotland, plus Central Europe!
The Gumbo Pages' Home Page