If you are a musician who is in the know then I know what you are doing the afternoon of April 29.
If you are a musician who is in the know then I know what you are doing the afternoon of April 29.
Louisiana International Music Expo (LIME), starts Friday afternoon at the Acadiana Center for the Arts and is thrown by the Lafayette Convention & Visitors Commission. Its goal is to bring the musicians of Acadiana, be they Cajun, zydeco, punkabilly, R&B, hiphop or what have you, into the room with national and international industry professionals. It's held as an expo-style event and pairs musicians with talent buyers, promoters, agents and labels.
Representatives from Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center Music Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival and many, many more attend. Local musicians have played at all of these venues directly because of LIME.
About a month before every Festival International is the due date for musicians to send in their applications for this event. The submissions are then viewed by a jury and it is decided who can attend. If you aren't going this year, take heart and check the Festival International 2012 website starting next January - make it your New Year's resolution to apply.
Also take heart and realize these industry people are not simply arriving on Friday afternoon and leaving. Many stay the weekend and attend shows during Festival and again at local music venues. So you never know who is watching.