Last weekend we drove to my hometown of New Iberia to attend the 80th annual Sugar Cane Festival (and to celebrate my birthday too 😉). It’s probably been 25 years since we’ve been to this festival and who doesn’t like small town Cajun fun? Our usual first stop each time we head back home is to visit one of our favorite drive thru daiquiri shops. Danny knows from experience that the large size just fits into the cup holders!
Just a bit of New Iberia history
New Iberia is a small town in the heart of Cajun country with approximately 30,000 people. Founded by the Spanish in 1779, and later settled by French Acadians, some locals refer to the city today as “the Berry”. Although it’s officially known as the “Queen city of the Teche”.
Bayou Teche is a 125 mile long waterway that winds through town and the city was once a hub for steamboat traffic for about 100 years. After Florida, the state of Louisiana ranks as the second largest producer of sugar in the U.S. New Iberia cultivates and produces the most sugar of any parish in the state. So, you’ll see extensive cane fields everywhere you look.
There are lots of other things to see and do around New Iberia that you may want to know about, so here’s a list with a few ideas:
- Author James Lee Burke is a famous local
- TABASCO®Brand Factory Tour & Museum
- Shadows-on-the-Teche plantation home
- Jefferson Island Rip Van Winkle Gardens FYI, there’s also a nice café here for lunch with good local food. You might want to read my earlier post Anniversary of the Lake Peigneur salt mine catastrophe which happened here.
- Conrad Rice Mill / Konriko®Brand store. The mill is the oldest operating rice mill in America.
- New Iberia National Register Historic District Trail brochure
There’s lots of other suggestions from Iberia Parish Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival
The Louisiana Sugar Cane Festival originated in 1937 and unites Louisiana’s 24 sugar producing parishes. This celebration honors the cane farmers and the sugar industry with Cajun food, festival royalty and great music. World War II and COVID were the only years when the festival was cancelled.
The festival is held on the last full weekend every September. There are three parades: the Tractor Parade, Children’s Parade and finally the Queen’s Parade that presents the newly crowned King Sucrose and Queen Sugar. Friday kicks off with a local priest’s “blessing of the crops” ceremony at a nearby sugar cane field.
Farmer’s Parade
We attended the Farmer’s Parade downtown on Friday .
Fais-do-do
Friday night was filled with music and fun at the fais-do-do. For those of you who aren’t Cajun, fais-do-do (pronounced fay dough dough) translates to “go to sleep”. In other generations, parents would put the kids down to sleep, so they could listen to music and dance. It’s now synonymous to refer to a Cajun dance party as a fais-do-do.
It was great to meet up with some of our family and to see a lot of other people young and old having fun and dancing by the stage. Even a group of the royal contestants joined in on the party.
The downtown renovations and investments made toward revitalizations are a welcome sight. Like many small town historic areas, there’s still work to do, but progress takes time. We enjoyed our time at the festival and look forward to the next one.
It’s my birthday!
After attending a baby shower for twins due later this year, we went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday with my mom. We just couldn’t resist the bananas foster bread pudding!
We look forward to seeing you next time.
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