Experience Louisiana Festival is Saturday, Sunday

Almost a year of planning will come to fruition Saturday morning when the Experience Louisiana Festival opens at 10:45 a.m.
Festival committee member Dwight Jodon said, “The big news in the last few days is that Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne will open the festival. He was here for the launch in November, so it is really appropriate that he is the one opening the festival. We even received a grant from his office for marketing for the festival.”
Jodon said the opening ceremony will be a bit of a surprise and a “culturally significant” event put together by Celeste Gomez, St. Landry Parish Tourism Commission executive director. Five new demonstrators have also joined the festival’s Folklife lineup, and one of St. Landry Parish’s newest celebrities, Lt. Clay Higgins of the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office, will make an appearance at the festival.
“We want Lt. Higgins to help us celebrate St. Landry Parish and take pictures with people,” Jodon said. “He will be on the main stage at 3 p.m. Saturday, right before Geno Delafose, to welcome the crowd and talk about St. Landry Parish.”
Jodon said The Eunice Community Art House booth will be a great place for families to visit.
“They will have a lot of neat things for kids,” he said. “They will be doing a passport for kids, and the kids will visit locations on the festival grounds to get a stamp or signature. It will be a great activity to occupy their time, and it will be educational and incorporate all the spots for kids at the festival.
There will also be book readings with children’s book authors and a bubble parade for the festival’s younger attendants, and the Ag Village will have an event for kids every 30 minutes during the festival.
“We hope to draw around 10,000 people,” Jodon said. “The Folklife Festival drew around 20,000 people.”
Gomez said the festival’s organizers are veterans of coordinating an event. 
“They have experienced success in the past with the Folklife Festival here in Eunice years ago. They know what we are capable of doing,” she said. 
“I think it is going to be great event. We just need people to attend,” Gomez said. 
The festival’s diverse attractions from softball and baseball games to culinary demonstrations, a boucherie and films should attract a diverse crowd. 
“I think there will be something for everybody,” she said. 
The Experience Louisiana Festival has been marketed since 2014, she said. The festival has been on state tourism websites, promoted on social media and advertised across the state, Gomez said. 
Planned gubernatorial stump speeches for the festival have been removed from the schedule.