The next few days will be busy in New Iberia as the Iberia Cultural Resources Association strives to once again provide a party for its supporters as well as bring a high-quality free concert to the city.

The ICRA will be playing host to its Patrons Party Thursday at the Sliman Theater. The event is for ICRA Symphony Patrons, but also open to those willing to become a patron at the event.

ICRA Director Cathy Indest said becoming a patron is $50 per person.

“We would appreciate getting more symphony patrons,” Indest said. “We appreciate our current patrons who have already given us donations but we welcome any more that we can receive from the community.”

This year’s Patrons Party at the Sliman Theater will be particularly exciting because of the live entertainment and food, Indest said.

“This particular party is going to be very nice because we will have a pianist who will be doing Broadway tunes as background music to entertain us, and we’re going to be having different types of dishes,” she said.

Those dishes will be provided by Bonefish Grill and Zea Rotisserie & Bar.

“It’s going to be great fun,” Indest said.

The ICRA annually brings four free concerts to town per year. The upcoming concert is the second of the season, titled “A Prelude to Spring,” and is set to take place 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Peter’s Catholic Church. The theme for this year’s concert is “Learning and Listening to Beautiful Music.”

The Sunday concert with the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra will have some classical pieces as well as pieces everyone can recognize. Some of the selections include “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire,” “Some Enchanted Evening” and selections from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” 

For the concert, Indest said organizers are hoping to bring younger people out to tap into the high quality musical content.

“We are hoping that we will have some young people who are musical students that will come to this particular concert because it has a component of it that will allow students to learn more about music,” she said.

“We’re encouraging all young people to come to this.”

To become an ICRA patron, you can download the form on iberiacultural.com or show up Thursday and pay there.