As the Bayou State’s leaves turn orange and the trees begin to show bare branches, something remarkable happens: The fall festival season explodes into being. From north to south, people gather by the thousands to celebrate various activities in style — from the annual Baton Rouge fall events to major music performances in New Orleans.
But we aren’t talking about your ordinary string of festivals.
While other states may have Bonnaroo and Coachella, Louisiana offers a plethora of quirky, irresistible festivals with patently descriptive titles.
With the exception of Alligator Festival, which admittedly merits a few questions, there is not an item on this list that leaves you wondering what sorts of fun you’ll get into upon arriving. We’re going to dive into each of these festivals, and we’ll formulate a game plan for staying well-fed and hydrated during the many fun activities the season brings.
First and most pressingly, you aren’t in any great danger of being eaten by an alligator at this festival — probably no more than you are while reading this. Rather, you shall be the one doing the eating, and the alligator will likely be part of your meal.
Held in Luling, La., this festival has expanded since its inception in 1979 into a jamboree of music, artisanal goodies and lots and lots of food…including much more than alligator. Its origins, however, are deeply rooted in the great reptile of the bayou.
In the early days, the festival was held on a golf course driving range. The alligator had just been removed from the endangered species list, and the celebration coincided with the newly formed hunting season. People ate it up — literally — and over the next decades, the festival had to change sites four different times due to its skyrocketing popularity. It is currently held in St. Charles Parish Westbank Bridge Park.
The variety of delicious food available each year at Alligator Festival is a huge draw for attendees — they can find gator burgers, fried crawfish wraps, seafood alligator gumbo, smoked gator sausage po’ boys, pies, cakes, quesadillas, loaded curly fries, smoothies, crabs, steak, alligator balls and much more.
There’s also loads of good music, amusement-park rides and other fun activities to enjoy over course of the festival. Oh, and there are live alligators you can safely interact with, in case you were wondering.
Extracting sugar from our natural surroundings is a pursuit humans have managed to perfect over thousands of years. While sugar may be boiled down from the watery sap of maple trees in our country’s northern climes, in Louisiana, it gets extracted from the bamboo-like stalk of the sugarcane.
Spaniards introduced sugarcane to Louisiana in 1751, and the industry has since flourished. The impact sugar production has had on Louisiana cannot be overstated. It’s a $1 billion-per-year crop for the state — and that, perhaps, is enough of a cause for celebration.
The Sugar Cane Festival does exactly that — it celebrates sugar in all its saccharine glory. Having taken place in New Iberia in southern Louisiana for the last 80 years, this festival is five days of well-curated fun. There is the crowning of Queen Sugar and King Sucrose, a great bill of musical acts, a fair full of rides and activities and a mouthwatering array of different food vendors.
This festival also affords the opportunity to stroll around downtown New Iberia and to see its many shops and pieces of living history. With architectural influences ranging from Spanish to Victorian to southern plantation homes, the city dazzles.
Of all the many Baton Rouge events, only this homegrown festival celebrates those bygone days of doo-wop ballads and hippie jams, doing the twist and jitterbug on the dance floor and cruising around in classic old cars with white-walled wheels.
For those of us with a nostalgic bent, it’s a true pleasure to visit the city of Baton Rouge. Practically foaming over with historical richness, the capital city wears its multicultural heart on its sleeve. Having been colonized by three different countries, it is a true American melting pot with an otherworldly energy about it — and this festival will take you back to iconic cultural touchstones of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.
While at the Oldies But Goodies Fest, browse the collection of antique cars and relive the simpler times of decades past. Enter friendly competitions to try your hand at the jitterbug, or just grab a partner and loosen up on the dance floor. Take a stroll around Baton Rouge and grab some delicious on-the-go snacks and meals at Milford’s on Third.
If you have an appetite for barbecue, the Oldies But Goodies Fest offers another draw: the BCA state championship BBQ cook-off. Southern chefs travel hundreds of miles to try their hand in this competition, and you can volunteer to be a judge if you’d like to taste the contenders — not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
This festival deserves an award for its title alone. At once delicious and confusing, it promises exactly what it delivers: a celebration of two of Louisiana’s most vital industries.
The event celebrates seafood and petroleum side by side, and the festival focuses on educating people on how the hardworking laborers in both fields often collaborate to succeed. The Blessing of the Fleet and water parade showcase the seaborne workhorses of both industries. All types of local musicians grace the stages, while delicious food and arts and crafts flood the streets.
But how did such a unique festival come about?
Morgan City took in its first payload of jumbo shrimp in the 1930s. A small fishing boat had caught them in the dark, deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, signaling to the town an opportunity to explore a brand-new industry. Industry workers originally celebrated by parading through the downtown area, but it has since blossomed into the great festival it is today.
In 1967, the oil industry entered into the appreciative festival’s title. Oil had already become an invaluable asset to the local economy, and the festival-goers were more than pleased to jointly celebrate its role in improving their lives.
Baton Rouge fall festivals are worth getting excited about — and at the very core of the merrymaking is the Greater Baton Rouge State Fair. Held between late October and early November, it is the true essence of the classic American state fair, offering rides, games, music, a petting zoo, magicians, racing pigs, a lumberjack show, a Lego extravaganza and much more.
One of the most popular festivals in Baton Rouge, this fair was born in 1967 from the combination of two appropriately spectacular entities: a trade show and a carnival. It has since moved locations several times and now rests on a 100-acre fairgrounds, which transforms for several days each year into a dancing, twinkling, miniature city of fun.
There are so many different ways to enjoy yourself at this state fair. Sample jams, jellies and pies submitted for the fair’s contest. Ride classic carnival rides of varying thrill and speed. Go see a livestock show. Witness the genius creations people can build out of Legos.
The possibilities are endless, so give yourself enough time to explore the whole thing!
It’s a horror fan’s dream come true: a festival of indie horror films in one of America’s most haunted cities.
The New Orleans Horror Film Festival fits right in with the surroundings, as the voodoo magic of New Orleans is palpable in the air. Centuries of life have passed through the Crescent City, and the immense complexity of its history is precisely what fuels its frenetic liveliness today. But there is both light and darkness in this history, which is why an Internet search for “ghost tours in New Orleans” returns an overwhelming number of results!
Created by horror filmmakers for fans, this festival brings in both well-known and new directors to showcase their films, shorts, music videos and more. Whether you’re looking for zombies, gore, psychological mindbenders or some other type of enthralling thriller, you’ll be in the right place.
Film festivals not only give you movie critic-level access to fresh talent in the filmmaking world, but they also afford the opportunity to meet actors, directors and other special guests. Filmmakers often follow their films to different festivals and speak with the audience afterward, which provides the opportunity to meet the next big star in the horror world!
Again, a Louisiana festival whose title leaves no confusion — this is truly a weekend of wonder, and you are invited to join as visitors celebrate a centuries-old pastime.
Hot air balloons are mankind’s oldest form of flight, and their gentle shapes floating above the horizon have long been a beloved sight. This festival celebrates their majesty with balloon glows, food vendors, games, rides, music, fireworks and more fun activities.
Come see balloons of all shapes and colors. There are giant American flags, gargantuan floating advertisements for Coca-Cola and Remax, multicolored patchwork patterns, and even giant heads of beloved cartoon characters — including the romantic but pungent Pepe Le Pew.
The festival takes place in the appropriately named Ascension Parish, in Gonzales, La. Its entrance fee is extremely reasonable, too — only $5 for adults — so it’s the perfect place to bring family and friends without spending a lot of money.
Ah, cotton — that magical, breathable fabric that has long been the lifeblood of the American south.
Louisiana has its own intricate history with the crop. It has been grown there for around 300 years, and with the invention of the cotton gin in the late 1700s, it became the state’s primary cash crop. Louisiana’s relationship with cotton has undergone many tribulations and struggles, from disease to pests to dwindling acreage reserved for the plant. But through thick and thin, cotton remains one of the state’s most beloved exports.
The Louisiana Cotton Festival is an extremely interesting glimpse into the old culture and values of Louisiana. It aims to celebrate the crop, while offering some fun activities on the side.
The Contradanse, in which people dance to a French band, marks the official start of the festival. Then there is the crowning of Le Roi et La Reine de la Mison de Sante Nursing Home — that is, the king and queen of Mison de Sante Nursing Home — in which two senior citizens are crowned and then reign over the Contradanse!
Another festival highlight is the selection of the Louisiana Cotton Queen, chosen from among local women aged 17 to 22, who reigns for one year. Then there are pet shows, a carnival, street dances, entertainers, a cotton harvest mass, the running of the tournoi and more!
OK, there is a chance you won’t know what this festival is all about from its name. But if that’s the case, there’s good news: It means you get to try andouille sausage for the first time!
Like many of the festivals on this list, this one celebrates a food unique to Louisiana: the tough, spicy, delicious smoked sausage known as andouille. Originally brought to the state by French colonists, this sausage has remained popular due to both its deliciousness and its ability to keep well.
The festival celebrates in typical Louisiana fashion with music, fun and plenty of eating. Chefs will face off to prepare jambalayas, gumbos and other dishes featuring andouille, and the public will get to partake in the deliciousness by sampling different wares from talented chefs.
This is perhaps the biggest-ticket item on our list: a bona fide music festival, whose 2017 lineup includes greats like Kendrick Lamar, the Killers and Foo Fighters, among many others.
If you come to this festival, you will join more than 100,000 other fans who make the trek to enjoy the incredible lineup of talent that graces its stages.
The festival takes place in New Orleans and offers all the fun of a traditional music festival, with vendors, concerts, art and other immersive experiences for audience members to enjoy. As the title suggests, there is a voodoo influence on the festival’s aesthetic.
Voodoo, a form of mysticism formed from the influx of African influence, has long been an important part of Louisiana’s history. It is as ingrained in New Orleans as jambalaya, and the festival makes great efforts to incorporate voodoo into the atmosphere and vibe.
At Milford’s on Third, we’re a fun-loving group ourselves, and we know the importance of keeping our energy up during festival season. If you’re heading into or out of Baton Rouge for a festival, drop by Milford’s on Third to pick up grab-and-go snacks, meals and more to power you through the weekend.
We pride ourselves on our cooking, and you’ll find traditional Louisiana deliciousness combined with diverse other influences to create mouthwatering food ready to take with you. From our parfaits and bagels with schmear to our thickly piled deli meat sandwiches, you can trust us with your appetite.
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