Lafayette Travel's Lafayette Weekly initiative was recently nominated for "Best Music Tourism Initiative" by Music Cities. The Music Cities Awards is a global competition designed to acknowledge and reward the most outstanding applications of music for economic, social, environmental, and cultural development in cities and places all around the world.
Lafayette Weekly was created as part of Lafayette Travel's overall Sounds Good campaign to brand Lafayette Parish as a Music City and to soft launch its Spotify channel. Initially, the idea was to feature a weekly blog post alongside a Spotify playlist that highlighted various musical acts playing that week in and around Lafayette Parish. Post-COVID, once live music started returning, it evolved to include a comprehensive list of live music for the dance community and live music enthusiasts. It quickly grew from a listing to a monthly and then weekly email where radio stations, newspapers, blogs, and musicians search to find out who is playing where, what venues are hiring regular gigs, etc.
"Beyond the local music community, Lafayette Weekly has also proven a great tool to connect with people who are either visiting or have visited Lafayette," said Jesse Guidry, Vice President of Communication at Lafayette Travel. "It's a way for visitors or those that have moved from the area to stay in touch with Lafayette's music scene, keeping us top of mind for when they may want to visit. Plus, we have partnered with our major festivals to create a playlist that previews the festival line-up each year," added Guidry.
One recent success story comes from a local band that landed a gig at a local festival, a first for them, as a direct result of Lafayette Weekly listing their performances throughout the year. Hey, Jesse, Just wanted to share from the last gig. Thanx to you, we get our name out around here, which got us over there (2023 Fireman's Fair - Thibodaux, Louisiana)! Really appreciate all that you do for all of us local musicians!! Thanx, again! Ferdie (Lagniappe Band)
The winners will be announced at the Music Cities Awards Ceremony on October 18th as part of the Huntsville Music Cities Convention. Lafayette hosted the 2018 Music Cities Convention in conjunction with Festivals Acadiens et Créoles. To view a complete list of this year's applications, click here.