Shreveport festivals

[dimebag1980]

Well, festival season is heating up once again!

Holiday In Dixie is getting ready to start, with the annual Holiday In Dixie Treasure Hunt beginning this Friday. Dang it, this is going to be my year! I've been so close in the past, only to see that someone found it right where I'd been looking the day before. This year, it's mine!

Holiday In Dixie Website

And next month, north Louisiana's enormous cajun festival, Mudbug Madness, gets underway! Live bands, crawfish, the annual Mudbug Madness 5k Run, etc...

Mudbug Madness Website!

[NCB]

Hey Brian, speaking of festivals, do you think you could give some info on the Festival Plaza in Shreveport? I know you've talked about it before, but I'd love to hear more about the original idea's in building it.

[dimebag1980]

Hey, Nate... thanks for the question. I would have responded last night, but I think I've mentioned before how bad my home computer sucks. So I'll go ahead and repsond now.

Festival Plaza was a concept developed under the administration of former mayor Bo Williams. The vision was to take a vacant wasteland under some overpasses on the south side of downtown, clean it up, and build something worthwhile on it. For years, Shreveport's major festivals, like Mudbug Madness, the Red River Revel, etc, were held on the riverfront along Commerce Street, but as the festivals got larger, there was just not enough space on Commerce Street anymore. So the city did a little brainstorming with some local architects and came up with the festival plaza idea, and have now created a very large, open festival area that extends below the Market Street overpass, under the Spring Street overpass, and all the way to Clyde Fant Parkway on the riverfront. The Riverfront Park expansion was also designed to be tied into the Festival Plaza, and that's why there's an amphiteater and raised "stage" area in the park.

Here's the City of Shreveport's page dedicated to Festival Plaza. LOTS of photos on here, so this should give you some idea of what the area looks like.

http://www.ci.shreveport.la.us/dept/spar//...Plaza/index.htm

[richyb83]

Festival Plaza is a great idea, connecting it to the Riverfront Park with an amphiteater.

[NCB]

Thanks for the info, Brian!

It seems like there is definately some leadership up in NW Louisiana, because that brainstorming turned out to be something great. And from what I saw in the pictures, Festival Plaza looks great!