Events in Bogalusa Louisiana

Looking for top-notch, inexpensive family entertainment, great food, a beautiful outdoor experience and some of the best music in the world? Two words: Louisiana festivals.

More than 400 Louisiana festivals occur each year – which makes it easy to see why Louisiana is often called the Festival Capital of America. We celebrate just about every crop harvested, every indigenous dish, every type of music that's played here – ranging from Cajun and zydeco to Delta blues, New Orleans jazz, Louisiana's own swamp pop, country, salsa and more. Excellent Louisiana food is a given at any festival. And as always, Louisiana festivals offer abundant opportunities for meeting new friends.

Themed festivals range from a Strawberry Festival in Ponchatoula and Tomato Festival in Chalmette to the great Festival International in Lafayette; from the big Contraband Days Pirate Festival in Lake Charles to the Holiday Festival of Lights in Natchitoches. From the Red River Revel in Shreveport to the Catfish Festival in Washington. Of course, you'll want to visit the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, or the big family-fun French Quarter Festival.

And for the biggest of them all? That's right, Louisiana is home to Mardi Gras! But that's another story – and a very large one across the state!

Located in Washington Parish, Bogalusa, was founded as a company town in the early 1900s. It was built so fast that its nickname became the Magic City, and once held the distinction of having the largest lumber mill – the Great Southern Lumber Company – in the nation. Since that time, this hamlet on the Pearl River has proudly worn the title of “mill town.” On July 4th, the city hosts its founding (and the nation’s, of course), as well as the Bogalusa Paper Queen Ball. This distinctly southern Louisiana town was the birthplace of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa and New Orleans blues icon Professor Longhair, who wrote and immortalized the song “Tipitina”. To add to Bogalusa’s mystique, the town hosts the Bogalusa Blues and Heritage Festival, the Festival in the Park, and its own Mardi Gras parade.