Only One Louisiana Festival Makes Southern Living’s ‘Best Of’

Dear Southern Living Magazine, we the people of Louisiana have a bit of a bone to pick with you over your recently published list of "The South's Best Music Festivals You Should Attend". We noticed that you left almost all of our incredible festivals out of your alleged "best of" list.

Now, we don't mean to besmirch any of the other festivals that you have chosen to include on that list. I must admit your list is very comprehensive and does cover a lot of different cultural and musical events. You've got the festival scene covered from the Carolinas down through Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, and Kentucky too. But you could only find one, just one, festival in Louisiana to include in your list?

Heck in the space of less than a month Louisiana will have hosted or will be hosting festivals that honor boudin, crawfish, etoufee, and yes, the music of the world but none of those gatherings of hundreds of thousands of people was enough to make your list?

Okay, you did include the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival which is happening this weekend. That's a good festival for sure. The music is great, the food is great too. The festival is highly attended too but it's not free.

Which many of us feel is the overarching benefit to Lafayette's Festival International, now in its 37th year. Festival International is the largest free music festival in the world. Because of the acts and the atmosphere Lafayette, Louisiana will host some 300,000 guests in the downtown area between yesterday and Sunday evening.

Festival International also features some of the most amazing food you'll find on the planet. Not only are their Louisiana specialties on the wide a varied menus but there are also delicacies from around the world. Oh, and the shopping at Festival International, it's unparalleled to any market I have ever visited in my travels around the world.

But you, Southern Living, are telling me that there are at least 20 other festivals that are better. Look, we know you've been down here for the festival before. Maybe it's time you came back. We'd love to have you as a guest. We'll feed you well and then we'll help you rewrite that story about "the best music festivals in the South". Y'all come to see us.