From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:


Jeff 'Gras' is all about family fun
Costumes, food, music all part of parade festival
Friday, January 11, 2008
By Barri Bronston
East Jefferson bureau
Billy Ray Cyrus, Taylor Swift, the Bangles and Kansas
are among the performers that will take to the
Carnival stages at the second annual Family Gras
festival in Metairie and Gretna, organizers said
Thursday.

Parish officials said the festival almost certainly
will bring more costumers and families than did last
year's Metairie-only debut, when an estimated 8,000
revelers showed up over three days.

"This year it will be bigger and better," said
Jefferson Parish Councilman Tom Capella, who announced
the schedule of performances with Councilman John
Young.

The festival is designed as a three-day celebration of
costuming, concerts and Carnival. It will take place
Jan. 25, 26 and 27 at a site that officials are
calling Festival Plaza, on the Veterans Memorial
Boulevard median in front of Lakeside Shopping Center.
The West Bank will have its own Family Gras festival
this year, on Jan. 26 and 27 at the intersection of
the West Bank Expressway and Franklin Street in
Gretna.

Also new this year will be Flambeau Court, featuring
food booths from some of the parish's most popular
restaurants. Admission to the festival is free, but
the sites will be gated and festival-goers will not be
allowed to bring in coolers.

The festival is presented by the Jefferson Convention
& Visitors Bureau as a way to boost the economy and
offer a family-friendly alternative to the New Orleans
Carnival celebration.

Other acts scheduled for the stages include the
Imagination Movers, the local children's musical group
that can now be seen on the Disney cable television
channel, and Mitchel Musso, who plays Oliver Oken on
the wildly popular Disney Channel series "Hannah
Montana."

Also on the schedule are the Herman's Hermits with
Peter Noone, "American Idol" finalist Elliott Yamin,
Blake Shelton and local favorites Cowboy Mouth, Irma
Thomas, Frankie Ford, the Dixie Cups, Bobby Cure and
the Summertime Blues, the Abita Blues Band and Kayla
Woodson & the Louisiana Lightning. Kansas, famous for
such songs as "Carry On My Wayward Son" and "Dust in
the Wind," will perform with the Family Gras
Philharmonic Orchestra.

Performances will take place before and between
parades, allowing families and others in attendance to
enjoy both. Col. John Fortunato, a Sheriff's Office
spokesman, said the sites will be well protected.

"We do realize that there is a large influx of people
who will come out for this event," he said. "With the
crowds come additional responsibilities, but we will
make sure that Family Gras 2008 is a good event and a
safe one."

Like last year's Family Gras, each day of the festival
will have a different theme to encourage costuming:
Fright Night Friday, Sports Saturday and Carnival
Sunday. Parish President Aaron Broussard, flanked by a
group that included sponsors, law-enforcement
authorities and costumed characters, said he wants to
see as many people as possible don costumes to match
the themes.

"We're asking you to recycle your Halloween costumes,
get them out of the closet and bring out the kids,"
Broussard said of Fright Night Friday.

For Sports Saturday, he urged revelers to don the
colors of their favorite team, be it the New Orleans
Hornets -- one of the festival's sponsors -- the New
Orleans Saints, the LSU Tigers or a high school team.

"Sunday is purple, green and gold day," he said. "We
want to try to go back to our original Mardi Gras
traditions (when) families costumed together like in
the old days."

Family Gras spokesman Greg Buisson expects the event
to have an economic impact of about $700,000 for
Jefferson Parish, compared to $300,000 last year, when
it took place only in Metairie.

In addition to the Hornets, major sponsors include
Omni Bank, West Jefferson Medical Center and SDT Waste
and Debris Services.

Another Carnival-related festival, Alla Gras, will
take place Jan. 27 in Algiers, on Gen. DeGaulle Drive
between Kabel Drive and Rue Parc Fontaine. The event's
second year will include entertainment by Rockin
Doopsie, Kermit Ruffins, Pinstripe Brass Band, 101
Indian Runners, Crow the Mixel band and the Algiers
Brass Band.

. . . . . . .

Barri Bronston can be reached at
bbronston@... or (504) 883-7058.








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