Norfolk Festevents is pleased to partner with the Arts Council of New Orleans to present an intimate evening of art and music Bayou style.  The evening will provide the opportunity for guests to meet and talk with the NOLA artists about their art as well as bid on original pieces and other prizes through a silent auction while listening to the sounds of Terrance Siemien. All guests attending Thursday's Ball will receive 1 free Friday, July 31, 2009 admission ticket (1 Friday ticket per guest) for Bayou Boogaloo and Cajun Food Festival.

Terrance Simien Missing Kidney Tent
For more than 2 decades Grammy award winning artist Terrance Simien, 8th generation Louisiana Creole has been shattering the myths about what his indigenous Creole Zydeco music is and is not. Leading his Zydeco Experience Band, Simien has become a highly respected, internationally recognized touring and recording artist and Cultural Ambassador for his state. He has presented thousands of performances, toured millions of miles to over 40 countries and reached at least a million people during his eventful 25 year career. Simien is blessed with an extraordinary talent that expresses the deepest human emotions through the original instrument: The Voice. His eclectic fusion of Zydeco takes you on a multicultural musical tour of the world. Incorporating diverse music styles he creates a hypnotic blend of Zydeco-roots- New Orleans funk-reggae flavored- Afro-Caribbean-world music that will force you out of your seat and onto the dance floor. He has found a way to express himself as a relevant and evolving artist who remains reverent to his roots and musical legacy. His live performances have garnered him a level of international success and his fully engaged audiences around the globe have become more Zydeco Experienced than ever before!During the past 25 years Simien has shared studio and stage with Robert Palmer, Stevie Wonder, Los Lobos, Keith Richards, Art Neville, the Meters, Alan Toussaint, Paul Simon and Dave Matthews Band to name a few. He has been featured in dozens of films, including the blockbuster hit "The Big Easy", TV movies and advertising. In 2005 he became the first Zydeco artist to perform in Cuba for the US State Department. In 2006, Carnegie Hall sent him and this band to Mali, West Africa to present "Creole for Kidz & The History of Zydeco" as part of a unique distance learning program entitled Global Encounters. 2007 offered another global opportunity and a rare Creole cultural exchange and tour with the US State Department to Mauritius, Rodrigues and Seychelles where he connected his own Creole culture with the indigenous Creole/Kreol population of these countries. He and his band were the first American artists to perform in Rodrigues, a country of 40,000 people with a Creole culture still intact. He has received countless awards, grants and recognition for his artistry and his contributions to help raise the professional standards by mentoring his fellow and emerging artists about the music industry. In 2008 The Louisiana Office of Tourism selected Simien as one of their Louisiana celebrities to be featured in national television commercials and print ads. Simien is currently working on a book for school aged children about his Creole culture and zydeco