On October 19th from 9am-4pm, Black Pot Bookshop in downtown Opelousas hosts their market on the corner of Vine and S. Market Street in the St Landry Bank Lot. This free market will have handmade crafts, tasty treats, and even some kid-friendly fun with face painting and ice cream. Play Halloween games and win even more candy and prizes!
Investigate the 300-year-old steamboat town of Washington, Louisiana on September 1st with Louisiana Spirits, the largest ghosthunting organization in Louisiana. Team up with the pros as they investigate the newly renovated Hotel Klaus circa 1870, Schmitt Hotel circa 1820, and Wolff Hall circa 1840.
Contact mlee@laspirits.com for pricing.
Heartland Tours is an agritourism company that unites people to the land and each other through educational farm bus tours. Tours include seven farm tour options that span from one to three days with prices starting at $30. Double occupancy prices are also available. Delicious Louisiana food is served each day with live music all throughout the trip. Learn more about the agriculture industry and see how your food is grown on the Heartland Tour this October.
Tickets include lodging, transportation, farm tours, a tour guide, bus snacks, a goody bag, concert tickets, and meals with an exception of one supper. One of the three nights includes a unique farm-to-table experience: A catered meal with live music at La Casetta at the Farm in Melville, Louisiana. You can find more details about the concert at the farm here.
Stops include: Frogmore Cotton Gin and Plantation, Natchitoches Pecan Co, LSU Center for River Studies, Sugarfield Spirits, Fullness Farm, ICCR Dairy, and Cannatella Farms.
Let Heartland Tours take care of the details and enjoy the ride!
On Tuesday, April 26, stop by to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Opelousas Museum and Interpretive Center. There will be cake and beverages to enjoy among the intriguing collection of artifacts and photos.
To much fanfare, the museum opened in April 1992 under the administration of Mayor John Joseph. A forward-thinking team of residents championed the effort that involved extensive fundraising for a dream. Professional historians, exhibit designers, and other consultants helped create beautiful displays to showcase the history and culture of Opelousas.
Exhibits cover prehistory, agriculture, home and family, business, music, and food. One room is dedicated to the Civil War, and two rooms house the Geraldine Smith Welch Doll Collection of over 400 dolls. The Rod Milburn exhibit holds memorabilia of the Olympic Gold Medalist. The museum also holds the Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Music Festival Archives Louisiana and Video Collection.
The Washington Museum & Tourist Center is open and ready for business. On select Saturdays, they will spotlight cultural touchstones in the community ranging from musicians to artists and craftsmen.
On September 17th, at 10am, the Town of Washington Museum will be having Mr. Howard Ware as its guest speaker. Mr. Ware was a star athlete at Paul L. Dunbar High School, who went on to become the head coach of track and field at a university in Austin, Texas. He was also the founder, and president of the Austin Striders Track Club, where he trained and developed youth to compete in track and field events.
Stay tuned for more events to come! Call the museum at 337-826-3626 for more information.
This springtime event is a comprehensive tour of the Spiritual Influence of Classical Architecture in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. On Saturday, April 9, 2022 from 9am – 5pm, visit classically inspired buildings such as the St. Borromeo Catholic Church, St. Charles College, the Academy of Sacred Heart, and more.
At the end of the course, participants will be able to identify religious history and classical symbolism in the Jesuit and Sacred Heart religious orders, as well as, recognize classical art in Catholic structures. They will also be able to identify local religious and residential building materials in southern Louisiana dating from 1796 to 1909 and recall proper renovation techniques of antebellum structures.
All attendees will receive take-home information about the St. Charles Borromeo architecture, art, and history. Throughout the tour, professional speakers will provide intimate knowledge of the buildings, sites, people, and cultural significance of these classically-inspired places.
A boxed lunch and afternoon refreshments will be provided. Participants will need their own transportation from each venue.
For questions contact Peter Patout at peter@peterpatout.com or Eddie Cazayoux at edwardjc@centurytel.net.
Download a complete itinerary here.
See nearby accommodations.
Fête de la Nature is a celebration of Acadiana’s natural surroundings through art, music, food, and science. This event takes place at Atelier de la Nature in Arnaudville, Louisiana. Throughout the day, scientists will lead an open-to-the-public BioBlitz. At the BioBlitz, participants search for every species of bird, reptile, insect, plant and fungus living at the reserve.
A benefit lunch will be run by Chef Colt Patin of the Culinary Institute of Baton Rouge, his students, and Scouts Troop 174. Food will be sold at the event with proceeds will help fund Atelier de la Nature’s youth education programs. Crawfish will be $20 for 3lbs.
Register for this event for free here.
This event is made possible in partnership with Cycle Zydeco.
Multilingual accessibility (French/Spanish/English). Please contact Atelier de la Nature for other accessibility requests.
In the evening, we will screen the film “My Louisiana Love” with opening remarks and Q&A with co-producer and co-writer Monique Verdin. This screening is in commemoration of the 15 years since the Deepwater Horizon accident and the 20 years since Hurricane Katrina.
FREE registration is REQUIRED for all attendees. If you’d like to support Atelier de la Nature, a donation would be greaty appreciated. Suggested donation is $10.
Tickets available for:
– General Admission: FREE – Please register to attend
– Crawfish (3lbs crawfish + 2 potatoes) presale: $20
– Camping (per tent): $10
– Crawfish will also be sold at the event, as well as other concessions (card and cash accepted).
Event schedule:
6:30-8 AM Birds
8-10 AM Arthropods
10-12 Amphibians, Reptiles & Fishes
12-2 Music and lunch
2-4 Plants and Fungus
4-5 Mammals
6-8 Film screening
5-8 set up tents and dinner break (bring your own)
8-onwards: Nocturnal insects, bats, bonfire and camping
There are six musicians in the raucous pop ensemble Sweet Crude, but their ultimate goal is duality. The lyrics are bilingual, with French and English lyrics sometimes sharing space in one song. As a gang of bodies in motion onstage, their clamor of percussion and shouts whips up the dance floor in contagious physical joy – but the tunes lend themselves as well to deep listening, revealing complex layers of both craft and content. Of course, there’s the band name itself: a reference to the petroleum export of Sweet Crude’s home state of Louisiana, an unintentionally poetic linking of two concepts operating in seeming opposition. And like the title of Sweet Crude’s latest album – Officiel//Artificiel – when everything comes together, the product is more than the sum of the parts.
Special thanks to our major sponsors:
– Al Berard Memorial Music Fund at Community Foundation of Acadiana
– St. Martin Parish Tourism Commission
– Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
Ride for Rox is an annual springtime bike ride in celebration of the life of Roxanne Richard. Check out LATrail.org/ride4rox for a complete route description.
Mileage Options: 9, 18, 34, 44, 73
Start and finish from Bayou Teche Brewing in Arnaudville. Registration includes water, lunch from Tante Marie, and one free specialty draft from Bayou Teche Brewing.
Celebrate Halloween at this festival on the last Saturday in October from 11am-4pm at Atelier de la Nature. The nature preserve is located along the Corridor des Arts near Arnaudville. At this free event, parents have a great opportunity for their kids to celebrate Halloween safely. Learn about the importance of the environment while also celebrating Halloween through art, music, food & science.
Be a part of this event by volunteering or as a vendor by emailing info@atelierdelanature.org.
Spend some time with voices from the past at the St. Landry Catholic Church Cemetery Tours & Historical Reenactments in the Zydeco Capital of the World, Opelousas. This historical group tour will transport you back in time. Reactors focus on a chosen time period in Opelousas’ over 300 years of history and dress the part.
You’ve heard of New Orleans’s famous haunted tours, but you’ve never seen a tour done by the ghosts themselves. Tour the cemetery where Napoleonic General Garrigues de Flaugeac and Louisiana Governor Jacques Dupré are interred with your ghostly guides.
All proceeds from the cemetery tours fund the Cemetery Historical Restoration Project. The tours began in 2003 and, to date, 30-plus gravesites have been restored.
Saturday tours take place at 6pm, 6:30pm, 7pm, and 7:30pm, while Sunday tours are at 2pm and 3pm. Handicapped accessible tours will be available. Call the organizer for more details. Bus groups are welcome.
