The Brown Baggers, an authentic Cajun Band, will highlight the department of modern foreign languages- first Cajun Festival at the University of Tennessee at Martin.

The festival gets under way at 6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 11, with a Cajun dinner in Room 206 of the Ed and Carolyn Boling University Center. The menu includes Acadian Gumbo (shrimp, chicken and sausage), Crayfish en Croute, Salade Creole, Cajun bread and a beverage. New Orleans Bread Pudding with Sauce Bourbon will be served for dessert. The dinner is $7 per person. The Brown Baggers will play a couple of songs while dessert is served.

The concert will begin at 8 p.m., in the Boling University Center Auditorium. Each selection will be prefaced by brief cultural and historical comments. Dancing in the aisles is permitted.

Formed in 1995 as a folk music group, the original focus of the Brown Baggers was on southern Illinois and southeastern United States acoustic music. Eventually the Brown Baggers turned toward French Louisiana Cajun and Creole music because of the Cajun and French influence on fiddler and lead vocalist Dennis Stroughmatt.

The Brown Baggers have played the Missouri Humanities Council French Festival (La Fete) held annually for the past three years in St. Louis, St. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau. The group also has played the Illinois State Fair in Springfield and the Missouri Annual French Festival (La Fete D- Automne) in Old Mines.

Tickets for the Cajun Festival are available in the department of modern foreign languages in Room 427 of the Andy Holt Humanities Building on the UT Martin campus. Tickets must be purchased by Tuesday, Feb. 8. For tickets or more information, call (901) 587-7420.

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