Free Culture Day to Celebrate Acadians

Every year Vermilionville hosts this free event for the public to explore how the Acadian community maintains its heritage. This year’s Acadian Culture Day will focus on the theme “Where We Come From” and the activities planned for the day will include a Tintamarre parade, boat tours and canoeing, a sharing circle on “The Birth of Cajun Culture,” film showings, cooking demonstrations, kids’ crafts and games and demonstrations such as trapping, fiddle making, muskets, coureurs des bois and more. There will also be live music in the performance center by the Huval, Dupuy & Fuselier Cajun Band and Paul Daigle & Cajun Gold.

Each year for Acadian Culture Day Vermilionville presents a representative of the community with the Acadian Cultural Preservation Award in recognition of outstanding lifetime contributions to the preservation of the culture and the community. This year’s recipient is the late Mr. Merlin Fontenot, a well-known Cajun fiddle player and a long-time employee of Vermilionville. Fontenot, who passed away earlier in 2017, was lovingly referred to as “The Mayor of Vermilionville.”