For years, going out in Acadiana often meant meeting friends at a restaurant, grabbing a drink at a bar or finding a table somewhere with live music.
That is still part of the culture. But a different kind of social scene is growing across the area — scene built around parks, fitness, food trucks, farmers markets, pop-ups and free community events.
The change is not necessarily about replacing bars and restaurants. Instead, Acadiana’s entertainment culture appears to be expanding, with more opportunities to socialize without making a restaurant or bar the center of the experience.
Parks become gathering places
Moncus Park in Lafayette offers one of the clearest examples of that evolution…