This weekend, Lafayette will welcome the Celtic Bayou Festival, a brand new music festival that seeks to highlight the culture and music of both the Cajun and Celtic communities of South Louisiana.

Taking place at the Warehouse 535 Event Hall, 535 Garfield St., Lafayette, on  Friday, Mar. 11, 2016 and Saturday Mar. 12, 2016 , the festival will feature  musicians from the New Orleans and Lafayette area, as well as farther afield. The line-up includes Lafayette band Farouche, The Red Wellies from North Carolina, Reel Treble, Whiskey Bay Rovers, Smithfield Fair, Celjun, The Mairtín De Cógáin Project, and Wild Irish Roots.

Wild Irish Roots are singer and bodhran player Kate Kane Laborde, Uillean piper and multi-instrumentalist James Clark, percussionist and singer Frang Bladen, and guitarist and mandolin player Brian Breen. The band’s music is rooted in Cajun and Celtic culture, as well as the Jazz and Blues tradition. In keeping with their varied influences, Wild Irish Roots call both Baton Rouge and New Orleans home.

“This new festival is very exciting for many reasons,” said singer Kate Kane Laborde. “There are so many similarities between Cajun and Celtic culture. And it is great that there is such as strong interest in this area in Celtic music. For me, it is just incredible to see how Celtic music continues to branch out in South Louisiana.”

According to Festival Creators and Coordinators Tony and Sheila Davoren, the festival’s mission is to be both family-friendly and musically inclusive.

“There are so many similarities between the Cajun and Celtic cultures, both in the musical and community sense,” said Tony Davoren. “We have lived in Lafayette for more than 12 years, and it was the music and the sense of community that drew us there. But there was nothing really authentic in the Acadiana region that represented Celtic culture well. We wanted to create something that was fun, entertaining, and authentic, and that is how the festival came about.”

As well as music, the festival will offer a chance to win two return tickets to Ireland, a puppet show that tells the story of Oisín, Níamh, and the land of Tír na nÓg, a genealogy tent, and, in the best tradition of Celtic/Cajun culture, a Guinness cook-off.

The festival also features a children’s music competition which will, said Davoren, hopefully encourage young Cajun musicians to explore the world of Celtic music.

“We hope that our young local musicians will enjoy both the similarities and the differences of both cultures, as well as the wonderful music of both the Celtic countries and Acadiana,” said Tony Davoren. “And we hope that the festival will just keep getting bigger and better every year.”

Celtic Bayou Festival will take place on Friday, Mar. 11, 2016 and Saturday Mar. 12, 2016 at The  Warehouse 535 Event Hall, 535 Garfield St., Lafayette, Louisiana.

More information about Celtic Bayou Fest is available at http://www.celticbayoufest.com/