by Jeanni Ritchie
Growing up, the Pecan Festival was an annual tradition for our family. We arrived early on Saturday, staking out our spot for the parade and then walked around vendor booths meeting and greeting others from across the state.
We always went home with sackfuls of pecans and satsumas.
My favorite memory was the year Boss Hogg came to the festival. My sister was a big Dukes of Hazzard fan so we watched it often. Sorrell Booke was a crowd favorite.
The Louisiana Pecan Festival takes place on the first full weekend of November each year in Colfax and hosts 60,000 to 75,000 visitors. It is three days of fun, great food, live musical entertainment, and making memories.
The weekend kicks off with Children’s Day, a family-oriented event sponsored by area businesses that includes games, petting zoo, fun jumps, and rock walls and is free to the public. Arts and crafts booths, cooking contests, carnival rides, great food, musical entertainment, a Grand Parade, a street dance, and a fireworks show follow.
Visitors can pick up homemade pecans pies and pralines, jams, jellies, local honey, cane syrup and pecans at The Country Store.
I’ve recruited my OG family to attend this year. That’s my mom, dad, little sister, and me…the original family! It’s been forty years since we went to the Pecan Festival and I’m looking forward to making new memories with the nuclear family I had before all those atoms started splitting and new nuclear families were formed!
Hopefully my sister and I won’t get in trouble in the backseat on the way up! Are we there yet?!
Jeanni Ritchie is a contributing journalist from Central Louisiana. She can be reached at jeanniritchie54@gmail.com.