Always Something Happening
From an award-winning arts festival to West Louisiana's forestry fair, Vernon Parish celebrates its rich regional culture all year long.
Year-round, Vernon Parish is a place that enjoys life, a sentiment shown through its annual events and festivals.
Award-winning MayFest is a free, two-day arts festival in historic downtown Leesville that attracts artisans from all over Louisiana and other surrounding states to display and demonstrate their talents. Glass artists, potters, ceramicists, painters, jewelry makers, and other artisans are on hand to sell their wares and show how they’re made. The festival also features live entertainment, a classic car show, children’s activities and lots of mouthwatering Louisiana cuisine. Bring a lawn chair and enjoy a spring artwalk, Leesville-style.
The fall brings another Vernon Parish specialty, the annual West Louisiana Forestry Festival and Fair. The vibrant community gathering celebrates the area’s forestry industry with a 4-H woodman skills contest, a horse and livestock show, live music, and carnival rides. The fair also features the Leesville Lions Club Rodeo, a riveting opportunity to see regional riders compete in bull riding, calf roping, bareback riding, barrel racing, and lots more. Yee-haw!
Vernon Parish also hosts the Louisiana Championship Soapbox Derby, a local tradition rich in old-school charm. Children ages six to seventeen race semi-sturdy soapbox cars they’ve built by hand down the streets of historic downtown Leesville, using gravity as their sole power source.
True to Louisiana, boisterous, zany parades are a celebrated part of Vernon Parish culture. Leesville hosts colorful Mardi Gras parades full of seasonal grandeur and countless purple, green, and gold beads thrown to onlookers. And on the second Saturday of December, beautifully decorated floats festooned in red and green roll for Leesville’s annual Christmas Parade. legendcountry.com.
Sponsored by Vernon Parish Tourism