LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Lafayette’s old City Hall building will be renamed in honor of Phil Lank, co-founder of the Festival International de Louisiane.
The Lafayette City Council unanimously approved the move to recognize Lank, who was instrumental in the creation of what has since become the city's signature annual event, The Advertiser reported.
Lank died in January at 73.
The festival, which is known for bringing a variety of unique and emerging performers to Louisiana, began in Lafayette 35 years ago amid an oil industry downturn.
“It’s not just personal achievements, it’s his legacy for Lafayette,” former Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Cathy Webre told the City Council last week.
“He touched every facet of our community. So, it’s downtown revitalization, it’s neighborhood housing programs. It was the business support, the loans programs, the francophone relationships,” she said. “He worked really closely with neighborhood residents to start organizations that could carry all these things forward, and so therein lies the greatness of his. He had lots of vision, was passionate about it all.”
Lank was Lafayette’s Community Development Director from 1980 to 1992. He championed efforts to revive downtown Lafayette including Parc de Lafayette and to renovate Lafayette’s first City Hall, which now houses the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana. Lafayette's second City Hall, known as the city's old City Hall, will now bear Lank's name. A third city hall currently houses and operates city-parish government.
“Downtown Alive, Festival International, many things that folks in this community love about downtown, Phil’s fingerprints are all over,” current Downtown Development Authority CEO Anita Begnaud said.
“With Festival International right around the corner, it just feels like a really great recognition for someone who contributed a lot to the arts and culture of our city and our parish,” she added.
Festival International began Wednesday and runs through Sunday, May 1. Headliners in this year's lineup i nclude The Wailers, Sonny Landreth, Zachary Richard, Lil Nathan and the Zydeco Big Timers, DakhaBrakha from Ukraine and Bombino from Niger.
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