The 28th Annual St. Martinville Kiwanis Pepper Festival returns with a kick on October 26 at its new home along the Bayou Teche, Magnolia Park.
The daylong affair will feature live Cajun and Zydeco music with a lineup that includes regional talent like Sal and Kelsi Melancon, Darrell Crowe, Chubby Carrier, Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band, and Jaryd Lane & the Parish. For the kids, the festival will have fun jumps in addition to arts and crafts. The culinarily inclined won’t want to miss the annual pepper sauce cook-off, and of course, the festival’s renowned Pepper Eating Contest, a spectator favorite not for the faint of heart. “A ghost pepper is nothing compared to these peppers,” said festival co-chair Michelle Broussard.
The Louisiana pepper is a crop integral to St. Martinville’s culture and economy, as the home of two of the largest hot sauce and pepper providers in the world—Cajun Chef Products and Peppers Unlimited Louisiana. “It’s a living here, and we support our agricultural community through events like this one," said Broussard. Last year, the Louisiana Legislature even passed a resolution to name St. Martinville the “Louisiana Pepper Capital of the World.”
As its largest annual fundraiser, the pepper festival is the linchpin for the St. Martinville Kiwanis Club and enables it to do work that benefits youth in the community, such as providing books to second-graders, offering a week of free swimming lessons to kindergarteners and first graders, and hosting an annual Christmas party for children in foster care. “We need our festival to continue to do our projects for the kids in the community,” said Broussard.
For more information on the festival schedule leading up to the event, follow the “Kiwanis Club Pepper Festival” on Facebook.
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