Events in Franklin 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!

If life is sweet in Franklin, it may have something to do with the vast sugar plantations that established the city as a 19th-century inland port and built the wealth still evident in its downtown center. Distinctive lampposts line Franklin's Main Street, a partner in the state's Main Street Program, and home to some of the city's 400 structures on the National Register of Historic Places. Each fall, downtown comes alive for the Harvest Moon Fest that is held in conjunction with the Franklin Patriotic Concert, a performance on the banks of Bayou Teche. Recently renovated and reopened as a performing arts center, a year-round roster of cultural events is found at the historic movie house, Teche Theatre. For sportsmen and nature lovers, a public boat launch leads to the Franklin Canal and easy access to the Atchafalaya Basin and the many ecological wonders of Louisiana's wetlands and its delta region.