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The Bywater Neighborhood Association in association with The Bywater Art Market presents The 2008 Mirliton Festival.

Saturday November 8, 2008 11:30a.m.-7:00p.m. at Markey Park on the corner of Piety and Royal Streets in Bywater.

The annual Bywater party began in 1989, organized by neighborhood boosters who thought their section of town needed its own event. Longtime Bywater resident Mary Cooper was among the founders and recalled that the first fest began "as kind of a joke." According to Mary, the thinking was, "They have festivals in Louisiana for everything else, why not mirlitons?"

For several years the fest was produced in tandem with the Bywater Home Tour. In 1991 the festival even held a parade from Press Street down Rampart Street to the Stallings Center with the F.T. Nicholls High School (now Fredrick Douglas) marching band. Over the fest's 19 year history, one thing has remained the same: the Mirliton Festival has great food and superlative music. excerpt for Mirliton Festival Program