SugarFest 2024

  • Location: Museum Grounds
  • Date: October 6th, 2024
  • Time: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
  • Admission: FREE

Come have a sweet ole time at the West Baton Rouge Museum’s SugarFest on Sunday, October 6, 2024 from 11AM to 4PM. This 29th annual sweet celebration of the sugar cane harvest has been growing strong since 1995. 

SugarFest provides visitors of all ages with a free opportunity to learn about local culture, music and history. There will be a variety of traditional folk art and occupational craft demonstrations, a peek inside museum exhibits and historic buildings, cane cutting and grinding demonstrations, cane syrup boiling, and live music. Genres featured include Blues, Dixieland Jazz, Folk, Cajun, and Bluegrass. Some of the demonstrations include praline candy making, blacksmithing, bousillage making, wood working with antique hand tools, spinning, and much more. There will be old-fashioned pastimes for children to enjoy and a Café Français area where only French is spoken and lively games of Bourré will be played. Food and drink will be available for purchase, and artists will be selling their wares. Of course, there will be lots of sugary treats, fresh chewing cane samples, and a sweets contest. For those age 21 and over, there will be a rum tasting and discussion on how this spirit is made from Louisiana’s sweetest cash crop.

SugarFest is FREE and open to the public and is supported in part by Alma Plantation, LLC. and a Celebration Grant from the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area Foundation. Drinks, refreshments, and sugary treats will be available for purchase. Hope to see you there, SUGAR! 

Live Music Line Up

Festival goers will enjoy this opportunity to see free concerts featuring performances by the following artists and bands: Blues After School, Cane Grinders, Carter Wilkinson and Friends, Country Cajuns, Dorothy LeBlanc, Henry Turner Jr & Flavor, Judy Whitney Davis, Kenny Acosta Band, Kenny Neal, Kitchen Session, Lagniappe Dulcimer Society, Lil Ray Neal, Smokehouse Porter and Miss Mamie and the Gutbucket Blues Band, Storyville Stompers, The Cajun Party Band, and West Baton Rouge Oasis Jazz Band. There will also be a dance performance by Louisiane Vintage Dancers.

2024 SugarFest Music Schedule


Timed Events:

  • 11:00 – 4:00 – Ongoing folklife demonstrations, hands-on activities, and exhibit tours
  • 12:00 – Winners of Sweets Contest Announced at Arbroth Stage
  • 1:00 – Live Auction in Barn
  • 2:00 – Louisiana Vintage Dancers in the Barn
  • 2:30 – Cake Walk in front of Aillet House


Sweets Contest

Help celebrate 28 Sweet Years of SugarFest by entering an old-fashioned Sweets Contest hosted by the West Baton Rouge Historical Association!

Entry forms can be found here. Please carefully review contest rules, and then get cooking, SUGAR! Make your best recipe in any of these sugar-filled categories– cookies, cakes, pies or candies. Your entries must arrive at the West Baton Rouge Museum from 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM on Sunday morning.   Entries must not require reheating or refrigeration. Stick around while local celebrity judges sample all the entries, and enjoy the sweet rewards the Museum has in store for you.  

Enjoy historic folk life demonstrations, cane grinding, syrup boiling, live music and much more!  While you’re there, listen for the names of the contest winners to be announced around Noon.  You might win the grand prize!  

We encourage anyone wishing to show their support, but not feeling that competitive spirit, to consider donating cookies, cakes, pies and candies to help stock the Sweets Booth at SugarFest.