Courtesy of Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
While the rest of the world sleeps off their Friday night shenanigans, or sips coffee on their couch, Fred’s Lounge on Sixth Street pulses with a full-on Cajun dance. All before 9:30 am. Grimy in the way of old, well-loved drinking establishments—the walls hold a museum of Evangeline Parish ephemera. One of the local Cajun bands occupies the center of the tight, windowless bar—fiddles and drums and guitars and accordions and all. And barely two feet in front of them is the dance floor—where couples of all ages, all localities, and all backgrounds conduct a mesmerizing two-step. In between, longtime radio personality Mark Layne MC’s via the KVPI morning broadcast—entirely in Cajun French. Beers are being cracked open, Bloody Marys and screwdrivers are sloshing on the counter. Look carefully, and you’ll see a couple of folks pulling bottles of Hot Damn out of their back pockets for a swig.
There are the regulars, like Barry and Rita, who will gladly dance with anyone who doesn’t have a partner. The local farmers lean over the counter with their Coors Lights, shouting in Cajun French at one another over the music. Pouring out the door, locals take their cigarette breaks. Frequently, there are visitors, too. Folks from as far away as France or Germany visiting Louisiana—who heard a rumor that this little bar in a farming town was a must-see on their tour of America. Last time I visited, an entire party bus dropped off a group of fraternity brothers doing a boudin tour of Acadiana. The best boudin in the land is just down the road at T-Boy’s, but they had to make a (three-hour) pit stop at Fred’s first.
The bar’s been open since 1946, and rendered historically significant for its role as the place where the Courir de Mardi Gras tradition was revived after cultural assimilation threatened its existence across Acadiana. For this reason, Fred’s enjoys the title “Cajun Music Capital of the World”. The radio broadcast has been held on Saturday mornings since 1962, establishing Fred’s Saturday morning hoorah as a fixture on Evangeline Parish’s social calendar. After original owner Fred Tate’s death in 1992, his wife—the Evangeline Parish icon “Tante Sue”—made a business decision to only open for the Saturday morning folks, from 9 am–1:30 pm.
The result is a distinguished tradition in one of rural Louisiana’s most overlooked—and most culturally-significant—towns. As our world hurtles toward progress and change—in a little dingy bar in sleepy Mamou, there are four and a half hours where joy and community look exactly the same as they have since 1946.
Visit Fred's Lounge at 420 6th Street Mamou, Louisiana from 9 am–1:30 pm every Saturday. Details can be found via the "Fred's Lounge in Mamou" public Facebook Group.
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