The 2012 Oak Street Po-Boy Festival took place on Sunday 18 November 2012, and many visitors consumed plenty of food from various vendors, as can be seen here, including interviews from one vendor as well as the festival’s 2012 non-profit recipient of proceeds, the Tipitina’s Foundation.
Garbage cans filled, as did stomachs, under the clear, cool skies, on the same weekend that Apollo 16 astronaut and moonwalker Charlie Duke visited the New Orleans area.
Philip Moseley, seen below, is a co-owner of the new Blue Oak NOLA po-boy restaurant.
“We do all kinds of smoked meats and smoked sandwiches,” Moseley said. Seen below with Moseley is Robbie Evans, another co-owner. Both, Moseley said, had worked in kitchens with smoked meat and decided to open Blue Oak NOLA in mid-2012.
“This is our first big show,” Moseley said.
Elsewhere, several musicians played along Oak Street.
Not all po-boys are enjoyed and consumed, at least not by human beings.
Thick crowds lined Oak Street.
Each year, the organizers of the Po-Boy Festival select a charity to receive some of the profits from the festival. The recipient for the 2012 festival was the Tipitina’s Foundation.
Seen in the above image at the Tipitina’s Foundation’s information booth is Angela Thompson.
“We donate new instruments to all the schools, and it’s just a wonderful thing to support the music programs in these schools and to keep the music alive,” Thompson said.
Thompson is seen at right, below, posing with, from left-to-right, Marissa Allweiss and Marcy Blanchard, both, also, of the Tipitina’s Foundation.
Blanchard spoke more about the foundation’s role at the festival and in the New Orleans metropolitan area.
“Our mission is to support the New Orleans music and culture and its irreplaceable music community,” she said. “We have four main programs. We support child music education and adult musicians.”
“We put $2.5 million worth of instruments into greater New Orleans schools. We have a statewide co-op system for professional musicians to use for $15 a month,” Blanchard continued.
“The festival chose us as the official non-profit for this year’s festival, to highlight our work and what we do. We are associated with the Tipitina’s Music Club. We are the official 501(c)(3) federally recognized charitable arm of the Tipitina’s club at Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas,” she said.
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade also had an information book at the Po-Boy Festival.
There are several po-boy restaurants on Oak Street itself.
As usual, the New Orleans Police Department was on the scene, patrolling the areas of large crowds.
And, just like so often happens in New Orleans, a marching brass band plays.
The sun then soon set, both on the day, and on the 2012 Po-Boy Festival.
James A. Robichaux
{ 1 comment }
