Chuck Fest 2018

Lake Charles, LA

My original plans were to attend ArtsFest in Lake Charles over the weekend, but due to a few derailments, I ended up not being able to attend that event.  Instead, I managed to make it out to Chuck Fest for a few hours on Saturday evening.

For those of you unaware, Chuck Fest is essentially a celebration of Lake Charles.  A portion of the downtown area at the intersection of Ryan St. and Broad St. is blocked off and local and regional artists, craft breweries, food vendors, and others set up tables in the area.  Local restaurants, stores, and clubs in the area open their doors to all as well, and the city basically has a gigantic street party.

The event lasted from noon until midnight and featured nearly forty bands at four official venues.  I attended a few of the live shows but made sure to be at Stellar Beans at 7PM to see my friend, Brett Welch, jam for awhile.  If you’ve ever been to Stellar Beans, a locally owned coffee shop, you know that the atmosphere is generally laid back most of the time.  For Chuck Fest, though, patrons filed in and out of the coffee shop the entire time.  Many of them purchased coffee and other beverages and even some of Stellar’s great short order food.  A few brought in their own adult beverages.  People randomly broke out into dances while Brett did his thing as well.

After Brett’s performance, I wandered out into the streets to check out everything going on at the festival.  There were a ton of people at the event, and it was great to see Lake Charles so alive on a Saturday evening.

The weather wasn’t on its best behavior during the event.  There was an almost constant misting going on and the wind kicked up quite a bit as the evening continued.  A few vendors had problems with their canopies overturning due to the wind, but they always had a few helping hands around to set their canopies back up when needed.

I left the event late on Saturday and returned to the area the next morning.  The streets were clean and Stellar Beans was back to its normal, quiet self.  I had a medium roast coffee and caught up on the news of the day while myself and other patrons were serenaded by a local guitarist.  It was the perfect way to top off a fun weekend.

Now I’m preparing for the upcoming weekend.  My original plans have once again been disrupted by life thanks to my kids having early morning activities on Saturday, but I still have plans to have a little fun on Saturday afternoon and possibly on Sunday.  I’ll be sure to let you all know what goes down if I do have a good weekend.

As always, thanks for reading.  If you attended any cool festivals or events over the weekend, I’d love to hear about them in the comments section.  I’ve got a little nerdy goodness planned for later this week, so be watching for my next post real soon.