CROWLEY, LA – The 87th Annual International Rice Festival (IRF) took place this past weekend, bringing together an estimated 100,000 attendees to celebrate the state's deeply rooted connection to rice under the theme “Rice: a Louisiana Cuisine.”
The festival is Louisiana’s longest-running free agricultural event, as well as one of its largest; Festival President Joshua Spell, a Crowley native and executive chef at the popular local eatery Fezzo’s, emphasized the importance of keeping the festival free for the community.
“There’s not many festivals of this scale that are still free,” said Spell, who has served on the festival Parade Committee for many years. “We want to keep it, as long as we can, right here in downtown Crowley, to give back to our community. We have these events during the festival to celebrate our farmers, our rice mills, and the workers. At the end of the day, it’s all about rice.”
A highlight of the festival was the crowning of the 87th International Rice Festival Queen, Alanna Abshire. Abshire is a recent graduate of Louisiana State University Eunice and will represent the festival and the rice community throughout the year.
The festival also featured a competitive Rice & Creole Cooking Contest, where USA Rice staff member and host of The Rice Stuff podcast, Lesley Dixon, served as a judge. Participants vied for the prestigious “Chef de Riz” title, with Alex Theall emerging as the winner. His cabbage and rice dish, a labor of love that took weeks of experimentation to perfect and hours to prepare, was a favorite of judges and attendees alike.
The yearly festival is also an opportunity to honor exceptional members of the Louisiana rice community. Bryson LeBlanc, Akian Massey, and Troy Dalfrey were recognized with milling industry awards, while Troy Fruge was named Rice Farmer of the Year, and Christian Leonards earned the title of Junior Rice Farmer of the Year.
The festivities culminated in Saturday's lively grand parade, where local officials, businesses, schools, and nonprofit organizations tossed candy and beads from decorated floats in true Louisiana style. In the children’s parade on Friday, local elementary school classes showcased floats with imaginative themes, like a New Orleans streetcar and a Cajun seafood restaurant—with every inch of the floats covered with rice products.
Celebrated “zydecajun” musician Wayne Toups, a Crowley local, electrified the crowd on Friday night at the main stage. His unique fusion of zydeco, rock, country, and blues had festival-goers dancing and singing along to both his originals and beloved covers.
Dr. Ronnie Levy and his team from the LSU Ag Center performed a demonstration of a historical rice thresher from the early 20th century, providing a glimpse into rice farming methods from a century ago. Both the 86th International Rice Festival Queen, Isabella Hardy, and the newly crowned 87th IRF Queen, Alanna Abshire, pitchforked the first rice shocks into the thresher—the first of many ceremonial honors for the incoming rice dignitary.
USA Rice was among the many sponsors of this year’s festival joining local industry partners Supreme Rice, Falcon Rice, the Wright Group, JohnPac, the Acadia Parish Rice Growers Association, and Louisiana farmers.
For those interested in learning more about the festival and hearing interviews with award winners, organizers, and sponsors, the next episode of The Rice Stuff Podcast will provide an in-depth look at this cherished event and the community that makes it possible.