George FavalOro THE MAN BEHIND THE TALENT

By CJ Clements

Lafayette, La., native George Favaloro has been the man behind Lafayette’s live entertainment scene for more 35 years, bringing more musical acts to Acadiana than any other promoter. An icon in the local entertainment industry, Favaloro has a knack, a gift, for recognizing talent that resonates with audiences, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. Favaloro also has owned Lafayette clubs, including Colors, The Keg, Nitecaps, The Bulldog and currently NiteTown and Marley’s.

Over the past 35 years, Favaloro has presented top musical acts in large venues like Lafayette’s Cajundome and The Heymann Perfoming Arts Center, Alexandria’s Rapides Parish Coliseum, and Biloxi’s Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum. In fact, if you’ve attended live shows across Louisiana or the Mississippi Gulf Coast, you’ve probably seen a show presented by Favaloro’s concert companies, Colors Concert Connection or G Fav Events.

His first concert venture was at his teen club Colors on Johnston St. in Lafayette in the late ‘80s. The idea for that club was fueled by trips to Destin, Florida, for spring break and at the bar Nightown, where he particularly enjoyed hanging. It was there that he met regional bands and agents who represented them. “That got it all started,” he said.

Colors, owned by Favaloro and his business partner at the time, Todd French, was one of the most successful clubs in the South back in the late ‘80s. And adults weren’t allowed. “My first show at Colors was Pretty Poison with Jade Starling as the lead singer. We had to do something cool because at the end of the day we were a teen club, but we called it a young adult club,” said Favaloro. “In order to be cool, we started bringing in these shows that really nobody would touch.”

Stevie B, the Miami artist who dominated the freestyle and Hi-NRG (high energy) music scene in the ‘80s was his first major act. “And the reason we booked Stevie B was because he was a live band. The rest of them were these shows that were considered a track act,” Favaloro stated. “When Stevie B took the Lafayette show, it kinda made a connection between Lafayette all the way to Miami. And so that’s why we called it Colors Concert Connection”.

Favaloro and French hit the scene as serious concert promoters with their first big concert in the Cajundome. “Giving the success that we had at Colors, we made a name for ourselves with Famous Artist Agency. They had a lot of groups up and coming, so they needed somebody, sometimes a guinea pig, to do a show because a major promoter would not touch some of these shows,” according to Favaloro. “The first show was the Eazy Duz It Tour Featuring Eazy-E and N.W.A. with Too $hort, J.J. Fad, and The D.O.C. That was our first taste of a major concert inside an arena with 10,000 seats.”

From the Cajundome to a sell-out show in the Heymann Performing Arts Center, they were on their way to making a bigger name for themselves.

“The next one was Hall and Oates at the Heymann Center. We got lucky with that one because they had broken up. They had gotten back together, and so they were kinda on this regroup tour. They wanted to get their name back out there,” said Favaloro.

Colors Concert Connection expanded outside of the Lafayette area with a few shows in Biloxi, Alexandria and Baton Rouge. “We brought Vanilla Ice when he was very hot, we brought him to the Rapides Parish Coliseum. Half the town went crazy, the other half went whoa, what do we have here,” added Favaloro. “We ended up having the first sell-out show since Elvis Presley had played the building.” Favalaro has booked a vast array of musicians from rock to R&B to pop to country. “I’m proud of the diversity in the shows that we’ve done.

We go from doing the Doobie Brothers to doing a gospel show with BeBe and CeCe Winans,” he said. “The most enjoyable show was probably Tom Jones at the Heymann Center. People got wild. People were throwing panties at him. He came into town the night before. They went and ate at Charlie G’s. People walked up to his table, and he took pictures and signed autographs with everybody who came to the table. That was a nice thing.”

Favaloro said the show was somewhat of a tribute to his dad. “It was fun to have that show because when I was 17, my dad wanted to bring Tom Jones to town. He was always fundraising for the high school that I attended, and he wanted to bring Tom Jones in and I laughed. What happens