St. Francisville Festivals and Events

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August 2017

St. Francisville & Floods: A Tale of a Travelling House

By Anne Butler

zfloodstreet While St. Francisville developed on a high ridge overlooking the river, the port city of Bayou Sara was established in the late 1790s right on the banks of the Mississippi. Center of commerce for the surrounding plantation country, with a mile of warehouses to store cotton plus extensive residential and commercial sections, Bayou Sara was one of the 19th century’s most important river ports.

But just about every spring, as ice and snow melted upriver, a raging torrent of water raced downstream and through crevasses in flimsy levees to destroy everything in its path. This included Bayou Sara, but its residents, resilient souls that they were, came back year after year after year, at least until the 1920s.
In 1890 the New York Times described a levee break that inundated the entire town, stopping all business and compelling the abandonment of stores and homes by its 10,000 residents. Again in 1892 another flood put 10 feet of water into town, with considerable loss of property. Resourceful shopkeepers put merchandise on top shelves, tried to hold back floodwaters with mud boxes, and built raised wooden walkways and gangplanks so shoppers could keep their feet dry. But it was the flood of 1912 that was most devastating, with rising waters sending Bayou Sara residents rushing into the hills as large cracks appeared in the levee.

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Festival List

Festival

Walker Percy Weekend

Good food, craft beer and bourbon, live music, and a great time talking about books and Southern culture under the live oaks: That's what the Walker Percy Weekend has to offer when it returns to celebrate the acclaimed novelist's life and work.

Festival

The Day the War Stopped

Each year in June, the beautiful Louisiana town of St. Francisville remembers a day of peace that took place there in the midst of one of the bloodiest months of the Civil War.

Festival

Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration

The Feliciana Nature Society will hold their annual Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration in St. Francisville, Louisiana. The Feliciana Hummingbird Celebration promotes the unique breeding habitat found in the St. Francisville area. The event provides the opportunity to observe hummingbirds up close as they are banded at two private homes in the St. Francisville area. Hummingbird-friendly plants will also be available for sale.

Festival

Polos and Pearls

The evening promises to put a little sizzle into summer by pairing popular shops with the area’s finest eateries, local artisans and musicians. Trolley transportation will link the featured locations along Commerce, Ferdinand and Royal Streets, and each retail outlet is offering special red-hot deals to draw customers to the downtown area to shop in the cool of the evening.

Festival

Southern Garden Symposium

Annual tradition for garden enthusiasts from across the south. With featured speakers, no other gardening program brings together top quality speakers and historic plantation settings as well as the Southern Garden Symposium in St. Francisville, Louisiana. Known as much for its engaging social events and historic venues as for its outstanding gardening lectures and workshops, ....

Festival

Yellow Leaf

Art, music and lots of fun is the Yellow Leaf festival held each fall. Vendors are setup in Parker Park with musicians playing through out the festival.

Festival

Angola Rodeo

The Angola Rodeo, the longest running prison rodeo in the nation, is held twice a year, in the spring and fall.. The Spring rodeo normally being in the third weekend in April and the Fall rodeo every Sunday in October.

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Christmas in the Country

Christmas in the Country is held on the first full weekend in December each year. Features: a small-town parade, peep-show of Christmas decorated homes, breakfast with Santa and much more.