• October 8

West Baton Rouge hosts “Sugarfest 2009!” by Christina Zito

Sugarfest 2009As the rain mist the West Baton Rouge Parish Museum grounds, people of all ages enjoyed the 2009 SugarFest! Guests walked to various plantation-styled cabins to visit exhibitors in 19th century costumes, watch demonstrations, view exhibits and listen to live music.

Exhibition visitors enjoyed the flavorful smell rabbit stew cooking on an open hearth, the soft feel of homemade vintage linens, blacksmith exhibits, smelling homemade soaps and sugar scrubs. Museum volunteers dressed in 19th century costumes and demonstrated crafts of the 19th century such as rope-making, soap-making, and wool-spinning.

Visitors took advantage of horse-drawn carriage rides, and they watched a demonstration of a work horse manually grinding sugar cane. Local bee keepers also provided a honey-making demonstration with their live bees.

Fiddles, accordions, guitars…..I loved listening to live Cajun, Jazz, Folk and Bluegrass music at SugarFest! Children had fun on the carriage rides, petting zoo, train rides, wagon rides and craft stations. Senior citizens shopped at the exhibits for homemade goods and crafts. Visitors also viewed and participated in vintage dancing on Sunday afternoon!Sugarfest 2009

The festival also offered guests a variety of classic Louisiana cuisine items such as boudin balls, jambalya, fried turkey wings, meat pies and crawfish pies. Guests participated in a cake-walk for a beautiful sugar cane themed sheet cake.

Festival visitors also wandered through the “Three Hundred Years of West Baton Rouge” museum exhibition. This display included information and images from the time the Native Americans occupied the local land through the present. This exhibit is definitely a valuable historical artifact for West Baton Rouge Parish residents.




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About Author

Christy

Communications Coordinator for Visit Baton Rouge. LSU grad. Bleeds purple and gold. Wine enthusiast extraordinaire. Runner in the making. Traveler. Love everything Louisiana.