Summer Festivals in Louisiana

If you like music or you like to eat, there may be no better place for you to be than in Louisiana this summer. Louisiana offers a slew of interesting festivals all over the state throughout the summer season. One is certain to be right for you.

If you enjoy Crawfish, either for eating or for purposes of entertainment, Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival takes place May 4-6 at Parc Hardy in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. You can get all of the information online at http://www.bbcrawfest.com/.

The festival features a local celebrity crawfish eating contest, Cajun dance lessons, cooking demonstrations, Cajun and Zydeco dance contests, crawfish races, a Crawfish Etouffee cookoff, and a parade. Featured in Southern Living, National Geographic, The NY Times, and more, it has been named a top 10 food festival by USA today. Much of the money made goes to civic organizations and city improvements, as well as Breaux Bridge Schools and students as grants and scholarships.

If Crawfish isn't your thing, but seafood is, Mandeville Seafood Festival takes place June 29-July 1, 2007 on Lake Ponchartrain at Mandeville Harbor, near Fontainebleau State Park. The website is http://www.seafoodfest.com/.

Aside from approximately twenty booths serving fresh seafood, the Mandeville Seafood Festival has a steady stream of local musical acts throughout the three-day event. From five o'clock on Friday, June 29^th until the festival close, the music just keeps coming. Featuring such local favorites as The Topcats, Five Finger Discount, and Chee Wheez. Profits from the festival support the community through contributions to such organizations as Pops Performing Arts and Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.

The Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival takes place Labor Day Weekend (August 30-September3) in downtown Morgan City. Directions can be found on the website at http://www.shrimp-petrofest.org/.

Louisiana's oldest chartered harvest festival, the festival emphasizes how the shrimp and petroleum industries worked together in the "Cajun Coast". The free event has turned into one of the country's premiere festivals. According to Time Magazine, it is "one of the best, most unusual, the most down-home, the most moving and the most fun the Country has to offer." Check it out and see why.

If you are more interested in the music than the food, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (http://www.nojazzfest.com/) is the event for you. A two weekend event taking place April 27-29 and May 4-6 ten minutes from the French Quarter at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is one of the largest of its kind in the United States.

Music and culture collide at the New Orleans "Jazzfest," with acts from every genre from zydeco to gospel appearing on nearly a dozen stages. With artists on the bill such as John Mayer, Harry Connick Jr., Bonnie Raitt, Joss Stone, John Legend, Norah Jones, Ludacris and more, Jazzfest is one of the biggest outdoor music festivals in the country. Almost half a million people attended last year's event, with people traveling from all over North America, Europe and East Asia.

Are you interested in the rough and tumble history of Louisiana? If so, from May 1-13, Lake Charles, Louisiana takes you back to the days of the pirates who once sailed Louisiana's coast and bayous with the Contraband Days Festival. The focus is on Jean Lafitte and the treasure he is rumored to have hidden along Lake Charles' shores. Events feature a sailboat regatta, a pirate landing a parade, and a special kids' area.

No place do the Louisiana traditions collide better than the Cajun French Music & Food Festival in Lake Charles. http://www.cityoflakecharles.com/festivals/cajun_french.asp

Taking place July 14-15, the Cajun French Music & Food Festival offers everything unique to Southwest Louisiana culture. This two-day celebration is sponsored by the Cajun-French Music Association, and features continuous Cajun music by local bands, along with food and dance competitions.

Cochon de Lait Festival takes place May 11-14 in Mansura, Louisiana. The festival's name translates as "roast suckling pig," so you can expects good eats, along with music, nightly street dances, and beer dancing contests!

Throughout the summer season, the Audubon Institute holds special events at the Audubon Zoo and Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. You can find special events, along with hours of operation listed on their website at http://www.auduboninstitute.org/site/PageServer. The Audubon Institute is also responsible for Go 4^th on the River, the July 4^th event at Woldenberg Riverfront Park.