33rd Corn Festival to run Thursday-Saturday

For over three decades, Bunkie and its neighboring communities have celebrated “all things corn” with the Louisiana Corn Festival.

This Thursday-Saturday (June 13-15) the carnival rides will blare, the parade will roll and the shucks will fly as the 33rd annual Corn Festival welcomes and entertains the crowd of festival-goers looking for a little fun in the summer sun.

The festival is sponsored by the Bunkie Chamber of Commerce but draws support from the City of Bunkie, various organizations and a large number of volunteers who work to make each year’s edition of the festival better than the year before.

IMPORTANT TO BUNKIE

“I look forward to the Corn Festival every year because it is a good time and attracts so many people to this community,” Mayor Bruce Coulon said. “The festival is important to the city because it helps the businesses by bringing in new customers.”

Coulon said he worked on the Corn Festival Committee for 25 years and always enjoyed it.

The Corn Festival Committee pays all expenses associated with the festival and uses the proceeds for improvements to the festival grounds, the mayor said.

“My thanks to Lele Soileau, Thomas Frank and Joey Frank for their hard work on the steering committee to make the festival a success,” Coulon said.

The Corn Festival is one of the oldest and largest of Avoyelles’ community festivals and draws visitors not only from throughout the parish, but statewide and from out-of-state.

It is a past recipient of the Festival of the Year Award, presented by the Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals (LAFF).

MUSIC, CARNIVAL, ETC.

The three-day event features several musical entertainers on Friday and Saturday, several activities for children and grown-ups and a carnival all in downtown Bunkie, adjacent to Haas Auditorium.

There will be no gate fee on Thursday for the “Family Night” carnival event. Carnival tickets may be purchased early again this year for $20 before the festival begins. Cost will be $25 at the festival to ride all night on Thursday and Friday nights. Carnival bracelets to ride all day will be sold on Saturday for $30. Early carnival bracelets can be purchased at Cottonport Bank in Bunkie.

There will be a gate fee on Friday and Saturday of $4 for those 21-and-over and $1 for those 20-and-under.

The parade will kick off at 10 a.m., featuring beauty queens and office-seekers in this election year.

Contests of “skill” are a hallmark of festivals.

While there’s no such thing as a “corn calling” contest, and a sour mash drinking contest would be hazardous to contestants’ health, there will be competitions for cooking corn recipes, corn shucking, corn eating and -- new this year -- corn cob lobbing.

For those who want a bit more physical exercise and a little less corn in their entertainment, there’s a softball tournament on Friday and Saturday.

For more details on the various events and activities, read the Corn Festival special section in this week’s Marksville Weekly News and Bunkie Record.

For more information about the Corn Festival, call the Chamber of Commerce at (318) 346-2575.