The Rotary Club of St. Charles Parish’s 42nd Alligator Festival will take place this year September 21 thru 24 at the West Bank Bridge Park in Luling, with gates first opening Thursday, September 21 at 6 p.m.
Festival operating hours are scheduled as follows: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, with the final Sunday gates opening at 11 a.m. and closing at 9 p.m. The 2023 Alligator Festival admission prices are $5 for adults, free for children 10 years and under, except for Thursday, when admission is free for all.
“We are excited to bring back the Alligator Festival for another year,” Randy Matherne, president of the Rotary Club of St. Charles Parish, said. “This festival is a great way to celebrate our local culture and raise money for a good cause.”
The Alligator Festival is the local Rotary Club’s primary fundraiser, operated since 1980 to raise funds for private St. Charles Parish scholarships. As a result of funds raised from the Alligator Festival over the last four decades, the Rotary Club of St. Charles Parish is now considered the largest private scholarship provider in the parish, with over $1 million in scholarships having been awarded to local youth.
“Last year, coming off our two-year break, we saw record breaking attendance with a crowd of about 25,000,” Kelsey Pollock, Alligator Festival marketing director, said. “Super excited about that; we hope to see the same sort of excitement in that crowd again [this year.]”
Around 27 local food vendors will be on hand at this year’s festival – the festival’s largest ever lineup – serving dozens of menu items. Seafood lovers can enjoy dishes like crawfish pasta, snapping turtle soup, shrimp and grits, catfish plates and crawfish wraps, while more traditional festival food will be also sold such as hamburgers, funnel cakes and chicken-on-a-stick.
The 42nd Alligator Festival would not serve justice to its name without offering a selection of nine different alligator dishes this year. Vendors will offer gator-flavored favorites like alligator sauce piquant, alligator burgers, alligator sausage and alligator eggrolls.
This year’s live music lineup will feature 10 different artists including Will Dempsey, Don Rich, Escalade Show and Dance Band, The Chee-Weez and Ryan Foret & the Foret Tradition. A full lineup of bands and showtimes are available on the Alligator Festival’s official webpage.
Over 80 craft booths will be present, offering a wide range of products like coffee, gemstones, spices, essential oils, knives, fudge, clothing and much more.
“It’s almost double what we used to have,” Pollock said of this year’s craft booth lineup. “We have a whole new area for craft vendors; we’re actually accommodating them near our side gate entrance, which we’ve never done before.”
Amusement ride “all you can ride” bands this year are priced from $20 to $25 per day, with Saturday bands being offered in two different timeframes, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., either timeslot priced at $25. For diehard thrill seekers, all-weekend ‘Megabands’ will be sold at a cost of $70 per band.
“Due to the great crowd we had last year, we are responding by spacing out our ride area to make for a more comfortable experience,” Pollock mentioned.
The event’s live alligator exhibit is considered by many as the highlight of the Alligator Festival, allowing visitors the opportunity to learn about, view and safely interact with alligators. The live exhibit will be available this year on Thursday in addition to its typical festival weekend exhibition dates.
Official Alligator Festival parking will be provided along Judge Edward Dufrene Parkway, at the St. Charles Parish School Board Central Office, RK Smith Middle School and the St. Charles Parish Satellite Center. Free shuttle service from the designated parking lots to the side gate of the festival grounds will be provided again this year during peak times, starting on Friday at 6 p.m., with shuttle services on Saturday and Sunday starting at 4 p.m. Visitors are discouraged from using the Westbank Levee for parking.
Reserved handicap parking will be available in the parking lot of the St. Charles Parish School Board Central office at the corner of Judge Edward Dufrene Parkway and River Road.
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