Wooden Boat Festival Returns to Madisonville for 34rd Year
MADISONVILLE, La – Maritime Museum Louisiana is set to host the 34th annual Wooden Boat Festival Oct. 18 & 19 in Madisonville, La.
The annual event highlights the maritime culture of the area, attracting thousands of boat enthusiasts and spectators to the Tchefuncte River for a two-day nautical celebration that offers food, art, boat tours and a little competitive fun for everyone.
“This is always a fun event for us to put on,” said Jim MacPherson, executive director of Maritime Museum Louisiana. “It does two major things for us and the Town of Madisonville. It is our major fundraiser for Maritime Museum Louisiana and the Tchefuncte River Lighthouse, and secondly it allows us to showcase the beautiful town of Madisonville.”
A highlight of the weekend is the Quick & Dirty competition where over the two-days teams of 4-6 members create a boat from materials provided by the festival organizers. The competition concludes with a Carnival-inspired parade, featuring the King and Queen of the festival, and ends with a boat race in the river.
“This should be an exciting year for the Quick & Dirty competition,” said Lori Marcus, festival coordinator. “We have 14 teams signed up and we have relocated where they build boats to the riverfront so there is more interaction between the teams and the festival attendees. We made other changes to improve the quality of the festival goers experience with the competition.”
In addition to Quick & Dirty, festivalgoers can shop from a multitude of local artists who will be on sight selling crafts, books and more; as well as spend some family time in the Children’s Village, grabbing your pumpkins and making toy boats.
New to the festival this year is the Beer Garden. All weekend, guests can grab a beer and watch the LSU and Saints games on the big screen.
The weekend kicks off with the Maritime Mania patron party Friday, Oct. 17, at the museum. The pirate-themed event will take place from 7:30 – 10:30 p.m. with food from local restaurants, and open bar, pirate costume contest and live music from fan-favorite Four Unplugged.
This year’s festival poster was designed by artist Mackenzie Stewart and unveiled at a special event Sept. 25, which also saw the announcement of this year’s King of the Festival State Representative Kim Carver.
Tickets to the festival are $15, kids 12 and younger get in for free, and can be found here. For more information – or to become a sponsor, vendor or participant – visit maritimemuseumlouisiana.org.
