The Festival International de Louisiane announces new corporate sponsors to help keep the annual international music festival in Lafayette going. Executive Director Scott Feehan says they have to raise over one-million dollars every year to put on the festival. He says one third of that cost comes from corporate donors, and just over a month ago they didn’t have any sponsors.

“That corporate support wasn’t there. It was dropping out because of the economy, and we were having some real problems filling that. So that’s when we started making changes. We reached out to the community, and the response was great,” Feehan said.

LUS Fiber, Service Chevrolet, and J.D. Bank are among the sponsors for the 2017 event that will take place April 26th to the 30th. But Feehan says their work isn’t over yet. He says now they’ll begin collecting donations from small businesses and individuals.

“Corporate accounts for a third. Well another third comes from the individual donations from $10 to $100 it all adds up. So that what we’re about to shift focus on”

Feehan says unfortunately they didn’t get enough sponsors to keep the Heritage Stage. He says the event is free to the public and it attracts 300,000 festival goers every year, so all the funding for the event has to come from donors. He says the founders of the festival wanted everyone to be able to enjoy it.

“They wanted to bring a world class event to Lafayette, and they wanted it to be available to anybody and everybody regardless of your financial situation. So we’re sticking to that,” Feehan said.

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