Lafayette is usually a quiet old town. Most days you'll find its inhabitants ambling slowly along the town's picturesque wide avenues, lined with wooden houses and immaculately-kept lawns. But Lafayette's tempo changes dramatically around festival time! According to Maureen, one of 1,700 volunteers who ensure the smooth running of the Festival International, Lafayette "wakes up" when it hears the sound of music drifting down its streets - and, judging by events on Wednesday night, there's no stopping it after that!

On Wednesday evening art galleries and other small venues threw open their doors and Lafayette's inhabitants poured into the street, children, loving couples and entire families strolling up and down the boulevards enjoying the balmy evening. Most people were making their way to the "Fais Do Do" (the Cajun name for the traditional dances which used to be held here). The modern version of the "Fais Do Do" is, in fact, an enormous tent resembling a circus Big Top. And it was here that the crowd was heading to enjoy the Festival International's first two acts (between 7pm and 10pm).

Things got off to a flying start with Lee Benoit & the Bayou Stompers, a traditional Cajun combo who warmed the crowd up with some wild accordion rhythms and a spot of nifty fiddle-playing. The Bayou Stompers' music was uproariously upbeat, with undertones reminiscent of country and blue-grass. Lee Benoit provided some excellent vocals - in both English and French (although I'm not sure many French music fans would actually understand the amazing Lafayette accent!)

Encouraged by the first strains of the accordion, a few eager couples leapt up onto the dancefloor and started giving an admirable demonstration of the famous "two-steps". It's not a straightforward kind of dance, it must be said. In fact, it looks like you might have to follow a course of master classes to get your feet round the rhythm! Things didn't get much easier when the second group "Step" Rideau & the Zydeco Outlaws took to the stage, cranking the tempo up by several notches with their wild Zydeco rhythms. (For your information Zydeco, invented by Louisiana's Creole population, sounds like a super speeded-up remix of the traditional Cajun sound!)

The band's singer (photo), a local version of James Brown, threw himself into his performance body, vocals and soul, squeezing away on his diatonic accordion (which he'd somehow managed to tune to imitate the wailing sounds of a harmonica). The Outlaws' guitarist, drummer and bass-player struggled to keep up with the wildly swirling rhythm, while over at the back of the stage the trusty washboard-player beat out the tempo on his metal washboard with a pair of battered old spoons.

By this stage of the proceedings the crowd had gone wild, hundreds of couples, both young and old, taking to the floor and whirling each other round in dances which appeared to have survived several generations. In fact, judging by the crowd on the dancefloor, the whole town appeared to be at the "Fais Do Do" on Wednesday night, downing copious glasses of beer and chatting away to their neighbours about the good old days. As they say in local Lafayette French "on a eu du bon temps!" (which roughly translates as "a good time was had by all!")