LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — Festival International is a music, art, and food celebration that is held in Downtown Lafayette every spring for the last 35 years.

“We come together to celebrate all cultures with a special emphasis on Francophone which is French speaking languages. So through the music, throughout our heritage, and through the food we celebrate all cultures,” says Carly Viator with the nonprofit organization.

Festival International attracts 300,000 visitors to laugh at every single year. It’s been a huge economic boost for the hub city since the 80s.

“Businesses around town are benefiting from this but it also it’s just a citywide celebration. Depending on what stage you wanna be at, or what country you to experience at that moment in the day you can kind of choose exactly where you want to be,” sad Viator.

The festival sprawls throughout Downtown Lafayette with multiple stages and performances happening the entire weekend. Even though we physically haven’t been together the past two years, the nonprofit has worked to put on the festival virtually.

Viator says, “One of the biggest things were going to incorporate into festival in the future is keeping that live stream element so that we can be truly a global celebration. It showcases our city and showing what we have here, but it’s also inviting other citizens of other countries to come and join us. We hope that you come join us next year. We hope to be back live in person and I know we all have a lot of festival energy built up so we are really looking forward to coming back together in 2022.”

Festival International is always the last weekend of April every year.