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This Week's Edition
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Crawfish season hits its peak this week as festivals fire up across Louisiana. The Louisiana Crawfish Festival opens in Chalmette, the World Championship Crawfish Étouffée Cook-off takes over Eunice, and we look back at the day Congress divided Louisiana 222 years ago. Here's your guide to the last week of March.
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March 24-30, 2026
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Peak Crawfish Season — Louisiana's Biggest Week for Mudbugs
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Crawfish festivals across Louisiana mark the peak of mudbug season.
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| Festivals all over the state. Chalmette hosts the Louisiana Crawfish Festival. Eunice crowns the World Championship Crawfish Étouffée Cook-off winner. Boils happening in every backyard, every church parking lot, every VFW hall across south Louisiana. | | Late March through April is peak crawfish season. Water's warming up, crawfish are bigger, prices drop, and everybody's eating them. Boiled, étouffée, bisque, fried—doesn't matter. This is crawfish time. | | Grab a cold beer, find a boil, and settle in. Here's what's happening across Louisiana—March 24 through 30. |
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What's Happening in Your Area Code
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🎭 New Orleans / Kenner / Metairie - 504
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The Louisiana Crawfish Festival in Chalmette celebrates one of the state’s favorite traditions
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| Louisiana Crawfish Festival |
| Frederick J. Sigur Civic Center, 8245 West Judge Perez Drive, Chalmette · March 26-29, 2026 |
| Since 1975, the Louisiana Crawfish Festival has celebrated Louisiana's favorite crustacean. Live music, crawfish prepared every way imaginable, family activities, and carnival rides. One of the state's biggest crawfish festivals. |
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| Live Music & Crawfish Season |
| Tin Roof Brewing Company and Red Dragon Listening Room have weekend shows.
Peak season. Boils everywhere. |
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Teams compete in Eunice at the World Championship Crawfish Étouffée Cook-off
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| Annual World Championship Crawfish Étouffée Cook-off |
| Eunice · March 28, 2026 |
| Professional and amateur cooks compete for the title of "World Champion." One of Louisiana's most prestigious cooking competitions. Live music, food vendors, and family activities |
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🚤 Houma / Thibodaux / Bayou Country - 985
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| Crawfish Season & Live Music |
| Peak season in Bayou Country. Seafood markets fully stocked.
Local venues have Cajun music and zydeco bands on weekends. |
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🌲 Shreveport / North Louisiana - 318
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| Spring Weather & Live Music |
| Perfect outdoor weather. Farmers markets opening back up.
Shreveport and Monroe have shows at local venues every weekend. |
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| The Day Congress Divided Louisiana Into Two Territories |
| The Day Congress Divided Louisiana Into Two Territories |
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An early map showing how Congress divided the Louisiana Purchase in 1804
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| 📅 March 26, 1804 |
| How Louisiana became Louisiana |
| On March 26, 1804, Congress passed an act dividing the Louisiana Purchase into two separate territories along the 33rd parallel—the line that still marks Louisiana's northern border today. |
Everything south of that line became the Territory of Orleans. Everything north became the District of Louisiana.
The Territory of Orleans included what would become the state of Louisiana, plus parts of West Florida that Spain still claimed but the United States considered part of the Louisiana Purchase. The District of Louisiana covered the rest of the massive territory stretching north to Canada.
President Thomas Jefferson appointed William C. C. Claiborne as governor of the Territory of Orleans. The territory was set up with its own elected legislature, court system, and government structure—modeled after the Northwest Territory.
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| Eight years later, on April 30, 1812, the Territory of Orleans became the state of Louisiana—the 18th state admitted to the Union and the first carved out of the Louisiana Purchase.
| | The District of Louisiana eventually became the Louisiana Territory, then the Missouri Territory, and eventually gave rise to 13 more states. | | But it all started on March 26, 1804, when Congress drew a line across the map and created two territories out of one massive purchase. |
| 222 years ago this week. |
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| Can You Name This Louisiana Parish? |
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| This parish sits in the heart of Cajun country. | | It's named after a French military officer who served under Napoleon and later became a hero of the American Revolution. He led Spanish colonial forces in battles against the British along the Gulf Coast. | | The parish was created in 1807, making it one of Louisiana's original 19 civil parishes. It's bordered by Lafayette Parish to the east and sits between the prairie and the coast.
| | The parish seat is a small city known for its rice industry and Cajun culture. Oil and gas production became a major industry here in the 20th century, but agriculture—especially rice and crawfish farming—remains central to the local economy. | | This parish is home to part of the Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest freshwater marshes on the Gulf Coast. Thousands of migratory birds stop here every year.
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If you've driven through southwest Louisiana on I-10, you've crossed through this parish. It's cattle country, rice country, and crawfish country—all rolled into one. |
| The answer: Jefferson Davis Parish |
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Southwest Louisiana farmland and marshland reflect the heart of Jefferson Davis Parish
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| Louisiana Icons |
| Why Bourbon Street's Most Famous Restaurant Still Refuses Reservations |
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| Galatoire's — Where the Line on Bourbon Street Is Part of the Experience
209 Bourbon Street, New Orleans | | Galatoire's opened in 1905 when French immigrant Jean Galatoire bought Victor's Restaurant on Bourbon Street and renamed it after himself. He brought three nephews over from France to help him run it, and their descendants have operated the restaurant ever since. | | For nearly a century, Galatoire's refused to take reservations. None. You wanted a table? You stood in line on Bourbon Street and waited your turn. First-come, first-served. President Ronald Reagan once called Senator Bennett Johnston while he was waiting in line. After the call, the senator returned to his spot. No exceptions. | | In 1999, the restaurant added a second floor with reservation seating. But the first-floor dining room—the original room with high ceilings, slow-moving paddle fans, and mirrored walls—still operates the old way. No reservations. You wait in line. | | The menu is classic French Creole. Trout Meunière. Crabmeat Maison. Shrimp Rémoulade. Oysters en Brochette. The same dishes Jean Galatoire served 120 years ago. In 2004, the James Beard Foundation named it the "outstanding restaurant" in America. | | Locals go to Galatoire's for Friday lunch—a New Orleans tradition where business deals get done, families gather, and three-hour lunches turn into five-hour affairs. 121 years later, still family-run, still serving the same food, and still making people wait in line on Bourbon Street for a table. |
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Galatoire’s on Bourbon Street has been a New Orleans tradition since 1905
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| Sponsored · Partner Feature |
BayouRoots |
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| Your Name. Your Louisiana Story. |
Your Last Name Has a Story.
Louisiana Knows It. |
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| No matter what your last name is — Thibodaux, Boudreaux, Fontenot, or Smith — we can trace your family's first known connection to Louisiana. |
| When did they arrive? Which parish? What brought them to the bayou country? BayouRoots pulls from historical Louisiana records to tell the story of your surname in this state. |
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"I had no idea our family came through the River parishes in the 1840s. This was a revelation."
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| Launch Offer |
| $19.99 |
| Reg. $29.99 |
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Use code at checkout:
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Backyard boils and festivals across Louisiana mean peak crawfish season has arrived
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| This is peak crawfish season in Louisiana. | | Chalmette's got the Louisiana Crawfish Festival going all weekend. Eunice crowns the étouffée cook-off champion. Every church, VFW, fire station, and backyard from Shreveport to the Gulf is throwing crawfish boils. | | This is the time of year Louisiana celebrates what makes us Louisiana. Good food, live music, family, friends, and crawfish. Lots of crawfish. | | If you're not from here, you might not get it. But if you are, you know exactly what this week means. | | Until next time, |
| Michael |
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