West Monroe Birthday Bash with Grammy-winning Wayne Toups will commemorate city's founding

The City of West Monroe is gearing up for a big celebration to commemorate 140 years since its founding.

The West Monroe Birthday Bash, presented by Cajun Tree Cutters, will be 5 to 9 p.m. Sept. 30 at the Ike Hamilton Expo Center. The event will feature live music from Grammy Award-winning Cajun artist Wayne Toups and a fireworks show.

Mayor Staci Mitchell and West Monroe Main Street Director Adrienne LaFrance-Wells announced details for the city's birthday celebration Wednesday during a news conference at the Ike Hamilton Expo.

"We hope all of you will make plans for Sept. 30 to help us celebrate West Monroe's 140th birthday," Mitchell said. "Again, just a great way to celebrate our community, our history, our heritage and just keep all of our community participation going."

Supporting acts include northeast Louisiana bands No Good Horses and Monty Russell and Friends.

"We've actually had several request that we bring him [Toups] here," LaFrance-Wells said. "The last Ouachita Live that we had with Gino Delafose with zydeco, I had two people, specifically, come up and ask if we could ever bring Wayne to our community. Also, we have Monty Russell, who is bringing an all-star crew of musicians. Monty was our initial connection to Wayne Toups, so we really appreciate his role in making this event happen, and also his work building up a pipeline for our up-and-coming musicians in our area."

Proceeds from the concert will benefit the “Picture This” capital campaign for community improvement projects.

Mitchell said the campaign funded 100% of Campbell's Landing, the public marina in downtown West Monroe, and the city is preparing to expand its riverfront development.

"We are closer and closer to the fishing pier," Mitchell said. "The CEA for the fishing pier has been received from the state. It's going to be on our agenda Tuesday night at our meeting, so we hope that construction can begin sometime this fall on that. We're excited about that."

Tickets for the birthday bash will go on sale to the public on Aug. 1. General admission single seats will be $25, reserved tables of eight will be $350, and VIP tables will be $750. Tickets can be purchased at wmbirthday.com.

Follow Ian Robinson on Twitter @_irobinson and on Facebook at https://bit.ly/3vln0w1.

Support local journalism by subscribing at https://cm.thenewsstar.com/specialo tffer.

This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Grammy winning Wayne Toups will headline West Monroe Birthday Bash