Fresh festival finds and an improved experience

It may be hard to believe, but we experienced some milder days recently when the brutal Southern summer took a few days to reload before surrendering to the inevitability of autumn. But it was a reminder that the fall season brings a special event to northwest Louisiana: the Red River Revel.

If you’re new to the area, the Revel has been a fixture of downtown for 49 years. It’s a celebration of music, art, food and beverages that sweeps into Festival Plaza with plenty of pomp and circumstance, originating as a project of the Shreveport Junior League.

Logan Lewis is the executive director of the event, which takes virtually an entire year to prepare. But one thing he will tell you is that the Revel couldn’t exist without volunteers. “The spirit of the Revel itself was born out of the spirit of volunteerism. With the Junior League, it was 100 percent volunteer to begin with. I think for about five years, it was only volunteers through the Junior League running this event. Then a non-profit was created and staff hired. It’s just part of our DNA.”

An important strand of that DNA is the Festival Production Committee, according to Lewis. “We have a core group of volunteers that is really the lifeblood of the event. They do more than work one shift. We have meetings, and they do a lot of work behind the scenes in the months leading up to it.

“There are 24 people on that committee, and there are 11 different areas. They take that area and supervise it. Each one of those people is recruiting their volunteers, the people they want to be there often. There’s a particular skill set needed for some of these [areas]. The Volunteer Committee spends a lot of time recruiting, talking to educators about high school volunteer hours or businesses about an employee team-building activity.

“We get lots of volunteers from local organizations, and, of course, the Junior League is still a huge part of our volunteer operations.”

A quick trip to the Revel website can hook you up with how you can volunteer for Revel XLIX, https://redriverrevel.com.

Lewis said that regular attendees will notice some changes this year to the event. “If you’re familiar with the Revel, you would notice that we’re not going to be running for nine consecutive days. We are going to opt for two four-day weekends, instead of being open on Saturday and being open every day for nine days until the following Sunday. We’re going to open on Thursday, still at 11 a.m. for lunch and everything else, and we’ll be open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and we’ll close on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to reopen Thursday. It aligns our festival in a way that makes it equal on both weekends. That makes it easier and more accessible for the artists to be able to attend.”

Lewis said it also allows the festival to take a breath and prepare for another intense four days of entertainment. He said an analysis of the past showed that the Monday through Wednesday span was not very well attended. “North Louisiana, but especially Shreveport, is a Thursday events town,” he said. “Most of the balls and the galas happen on Thursday night. Most of your fundraisers are on Thursday nights. It doesn’t interfere with high school football and people’s weekends, traveling to sports and things like that.”

Another change that may have some regulars confused is the elimination of coupons. “We instituted wrist bands in the last couple of years, and we still sort of had a coupon strategy where you would add a balance to the wristbands,” Lewis said.

“Moving forward, we are still using wristbands, but instead of just adding a balance, you’re simply linking your card to it and putting in a security PIN. And whatever you purchase is what you’ll be charged for. You don’t have to worry about how much money you have on it. Whatever you are buying is the only thing you’ll be charged for. It makes things a lot simpler. You only have to go to the wristband booth one time, go to the kiosk and set up the wristband, and you’re good to go.”

Lewis also said to expect the usual suspects in artists, musicians and attractions, but the Revel folks have found a way to improve them and make them fresh this year. The mock archaeological dig gets a new sponsor this year, We Dig, bringing hundreds of rocks and crystals, as well as a geode-cracking activity. There will be a laser tag arena, a new puzzle game that’s free and educational in nature. According to Lewis, it has the potential to keep the kids occupied for quite a time and give weary parents a breather.

“We’re having five stages instead of four,” Lewis said. “In the Depot area, there’s a stage that’s coming in with a group called Squonk. They’ll be in residence for the first weekend. They are performing eight times. They have a visual rock opera experience that you can participate in and make music with them.

“Every performance that they do has a 30-minute workshop that follows, where they take you backstage and show you how they built their stage and how they build all their props and everything that goes along with it.

Galactic will close out the last Saturday of the festival on the Chase Main Stage at 9 p.m.

Tab Benoit rocks out on Oct. 2 at 8:30 p.m. on the Chase Main Stage.

Professor Nick will debut at the Revel on Oct. 3 at 5:30 p.m.

Squonk is performing daily Sept. 25 - 28 on the Advocate Depot Stage.

Pam Tillis is the headline artist Friday, Sept. 26, on the Chase Main Stage.

“For the music, it is a very Louisiana-forward Revel this year. Of the 85 slots that we have on the music and performing arts lineup, 77 of those are based in or from Louisiana. The people can expect a lot of horns, a lot of dancing and a lot of fun music.

“We’re serving Superior Grill margaritas this year, including the strawberry frozen, which you can’t get in the restaurant anymore. Fatty Arbuckle’s is setting up a cocktail bar that’s going to have an extensive menu with champagne and lots of elaborate cocktails. Lyon’s Pride Coffee is going to take over the coffee bar, a Shreveport-based company serving Revel Roast.

“There’s going to be an 18-and-under micro-festival on the second Saturday, where the DMZ Stage, for a whole day, is 18-and-under bands. On Nov 4, the Beat Goes On drum celebration, which is the underlying theme of the festival, features drums and percussion. We’re going to have some workshops with some amazing percussionists.”

In between bites of a microwaved lunch at his desk in the busy Revel office, Lewis added that the website is a must-see for all the information about the festival. The food menu and music schedule are available. You can go to the schedule, click by date and see the schedule for all the stages. You can click on any artist and see videos and bios, links to their pages.

There will be over 100 artist booths at the Revel this year.

The same applies to visual artists. You can go through and look at all the artists coming with a preview plus a link to their page, if available.

All the kids’ activities are there. The volunteer link is there. The parking map and the festival plan site will be there, too.

“I would say, for most people, that they just need to come and experience it be cause it really is a very special thing that we created in our community. We created the Revel. Shreveport-Bossier created this thing, and it’s not like anything else. For that reason, it is a cultural event of extreme importance for the way we perceive ourselves and our relationships with one another. People need to come and participate in it, experience it, volunteer for it and be a part of it. It’s not just your run-of-the-mill event to go to. It’s got heart, and that’s what makes it really special.”