Louisiana Renaissance Festival

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Louisiana Renaissance Festival is a renaissance festival in Hammond, Louisiana. Recreating a historical 16th century village in England during the fall harvest festival, the villagers find themselves entertaining extra guests including nobles, pirates, gypsies and assorted travelers (ticket holding patrons). As an added surprise the English monarch and entourage have diverted from their usual progress about the country and descended upon this unsuspecting village.

The Louisiana Renaissance Festival [LRF] was opened in 1999 to become Louisiana's first renaissance festival. LRF is open to the public every year from the first weekend in November to the second weekend of December, including the Friday after Thanksgiving, taking advantage of cooling Louisiana weather and is the last renaissance festival in the US every year. In 2002 LRF received an award for best New Event of the Year Division I and has been selected for two years as one of the Southeast Tourism Society's TOP 20 Events in the Southeast.

When Hurricane Katrina in 2005 filled all of the local hotels with evacuees from New Orleans festival management pushed the planned construction of public camping ahead of schedule by a few years. LRF joined the ranks of renaissance festivals with strong traditions of unofficial campground entertainment. Despite rumors to the contrary, LRF was barely damaged by the storm.

LRF features seven stages with interactive entertainment all day. Minstrels in singles and groups often leave the stages after scheduled performances to wander the streets for extra play. There are over 100 merchants offering hand crafted items and often giving informative demonstrations about the crafting. The festival includes lots of food, drink, treats and spirits--both modern and historical. There is also a large "living village" reenactment with live cast members ready to show visitors a glimpse of preindustrial life.

While still small in comparison to other older renaissance festivals, including the neighboring giant Texas Renaissance Festival who's open season overlaps LRF throughout November, LRF enjoys a reputation of hospitality that has built a strong base of loyal visitors from all over the country.

Official Website: http://www.larf.org/