Zachary Richard took to the huge 'Vermillion' stage on Sunday, dressed in a shiny suit that reflected the warm rays of the afternoon sun and bounced them back into the audience. With a stylish Panama hat cocked on his head and his sunglasses jammed low down over his nose, the Louisiana star launched into a confident and exuberant performance, leaping up and down on stage in spite of the heat. But then, Zachary doesn't exactly have a problem adapting to the local climate – even if these days he does spend most of his time living in Montreal, Quebec!

Obviously happy to find himself back in Cajun country surrounded by thousands of smiling Cajun faces, Zachary played an upbeat set, whipping up a happy mix of genres and switching from acoustic and electric guitar to accordion with his usual aplomb. Accompanied by a backing band, that appeared to be mainly made up of Quebecois musicians, Zachary zipped along, powering out everything from rock to blues – but not forgetting to stop and pay tribute to traditional Cajun sounds on the way! Indeed, halfway through the show he urged everyone to "danser les Crawfish!" and the enthusiastic audience needed little encouragement to obey his command!

Fighting our way through a crowd of local groupies queuing up backstage after the show, we had to wait patiently through Zachary's autograph-singing session with Canadian fans before we could even get close to the man. Zachary Richard is extremely popular in Canada these days. In fact, his latest album sold like hotcakes over there, but was unfortunately never released in Louisiana or France. "The last French record company I was with went bankrupt," Zachary explains, "And I've spent the last two years going through all kinds of legal wrangles to get the copyright on my songs. Generally speaking, I still go to France to record though - I work in a recording studio in Cergy Pontoise. The problem is, to get my career up and running properly again in France I'd not only have to bring out a new album, I'd have to go over there and promote it as well. I reckon the whole thing would take at least six months!"
And those are six months Mr. Zachary Richard doesn't have right now. The singer has a tightly-packed schedule these days. In fact, he's hot back from a tour of French Canada and heading off tomorrow to play a series of dates up north there. Zachary also has to find time to work on a new branch of his career. Over the past few months Mr Richard has reinvented himself as a poet and these days he divides his time between writing songs and stanzas of poetry. "My American career's on hold right now," says the singer, explaining that he has given up writing songs in English for now, "It's been seven years since I put out an album in English!"

Zachary Richard has other priorities on his mind these days, not the least of these being the defence of the French language. "I'm a militant when it comes to promoting the use of French in the world!" he says with a smile. In fact, Zachary throws his boundless energy and militant fervour behind promoting French culture as a whole, not just the language. In recent years the singer has also spoken out on environmental issues too. "I guess I see my role as defending anything that's under threat!" Zachary says. And, despite recently having turned 50, the singer has lost none of his revolutionary zeal. "I believe I can have a positive influence on the way people think - and that's why I'm set on continuing this way!"

Clifton Chenier's ghost watches over Lafayette
After our chat with Zachary we headed back to the main stage for the closing tribute to Zydeco king, Clifton Chenier. Chenier died some fifteen years ago, but his influence continues to reign on the local music scene and it would be no exaggeration to say the Zydeco king's venerated like a god in these parts. One of the highlights of Lafayette Festival's Chenier tribute was when Buckweat Zydeco took to the stage, getting the crowd whirling with a mix of catchy Cajun rhythms. But the moment everyone will remember for years to come is when Chenier's son, C.J.Chenier, leapt on stage and performed his own touching musical tribute to his father.

In fact, the "Tribute to Clifton Chenier" proved such an overwhelming success that festival organisers predicted it would go down in history as one of the emotional highlights of the past few years.