Louisiana’s oldest and largest agricultural festival is the International Rice Festival. Each year, people from across the street and across the country gather in the small town of Crowley, Louisiana, to celebrate the economic and cultural importance of rice to our state. It’s the main ingredient in many Cajun and Creole dishes. It’s what grows on several hundred acres of farmland. It’s Louisiana’s crop!
Interestingly enough, this large festival had quite small beginnings. In 1927, the first of only two Rice Carnivals was held in Crowley in conjunction with Armistice celebrations. After 1928, the Rice Carnival was discontinued. It wasn’t until 1937, a decade after the first Carnival, that the Rice Festival was introduced to Acadia Parish. The very first Rice Festival was held on October 5, combined with Crowley’s Golden Jubilee. Needless to say, the festival was a huge success, drawing nearly 35,000 attendees.
Since then, the Rice Festival has only continued to grow. The festival now attracts as many as 125,000 people per year, with millions of people having attended since its inception. It’s still held on Parkerson Avenue downtown, yet it seems that new features are introduced each year.
Today, the Rice Festival is a four-day long celebration full of music, dancing, food, and fun for the whole family. Highlights of the festival include two music stages populated with Louisiana’s best local musicians, a seemingly endless chain of booths serving up delicious Cajun food, two parades leading rice covered floats down Parkerson, a huge section full of carnival rides and games for the kids, contests, cook offs, crownings, crafts, and a car show.
The 78th annual Rice Festival is going on right now, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had! Don’t miss live performances by Wayne Toups tonight and Charlie Daniels tomorrow night; and be sure to come on an empty stomach and have lots of energy for dancing!
Originally posted at: Lafayette Real Estate News
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