On Saturday, Nov. 10, from 7 to 10 p.m. the Beacon Sloop Club will hold a Cajun Dance Woody Sloop Fundraiser with Krewe de la Rue at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Beacon.
Krewe de la Rue is a Cajun band born out of the Hudson Valley fiddle and dance community. The Krewe traces its roots back to the fiddle and dance camp at Ashokan where in the late 1980s the great fiddler and “Cajun Ambassador” Dewey Balfa along with his young protegé Steve Riley first brought Cajun music to the Hudson Valley. Roger Weiss on fiddle, Buffy Lewis on guitar, Laren Droll on accordion, Maggie McManus on tee fer (the Cajun triangle), Paul Maloney on bass, and June Drucker on drums have years of experience in roots music including both Cajun and zydeco genres. Together as a group, they create the special mix that is Krewe de la Rue.
At 6 p.m., Buffy Lewis will teach basics of two-step and waltz to prepare for the dance. St. Luke’s, located at 850 Wolcott Ave. in Beacon, has a large wooden floor that can accommodate dancing and a large crowd.
The Beacon Sloop Club is an all-volunteer and nonprofit organization. The Woody Guthrie, a replica of the popular gaff-rigged Hudson River sloop from days of yore, has for 33 years been in service to the public in the form of free rides and education five weekday evenings a week. The Woody Guthrie Sloop is in need of $150,000 for major restoration. For more information on the Woody and the event, visit the website at beaconsloopclub.org.
At the fundraiser at St. Lukes’ on Nov. 10, gumbo and other refreshments will be available for purchase. Admission is $15. Purchase tickets online at brownpapertickets.com for a chance to win dinner for two at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.
