Why mac and cheese, you might wonder? If we can host a celebration for Creole tomato or almost all types of seafood swimming in the Gulf, then why not throw a festival for one of America’s quintessential meals?
Several places including New Mexico and California have been throwing festivals to celebrate the mac and cheese for a while now. Chicago’s take on the mac and cheese Festival is quite tremendous and Baton Rouge has its own version as well. Believe it or not, there was no Mac and Cheese Festival in New Orleans until recently, but it seems that the city always has room for one more food festival.
The Mac and Cheese Festival in New Orleans was founded by a lifelong lover of mac and cheese, Jules Egren, and her husband Kent Broussard. While the two were talking about festivals in New Orleans, they realized that there was no Mac and Cheese Festival in the region. They started to make plans to launch one, and shortly after the plans became a reality. Sponsored by WAITR, the Mac and Cheese Festival in New Orleans has grown since its launch and features dishes from over 12 local establishments, snowballs from Cajun Sneaux Snowballs, Squeezy Street Lemonade, and several libations. An artist market and live entertainment are part of the fun aspects of the event.
The Mac and Cheese Festival in New Orleans is held annually at the Louis Armstrong Park. The sprawling park in Treme is a popular place to host festivals in New Orleans due to its size as well as its proximity to the French Quarter.
The Mac and Cheese Festival in New Orleans is kid-friendly and free to attend. The festival features a wide selection of mac n cheese dishes from pop-ups, food catering businesses, and restaurants in Louisiana. You can purchase drink and food tickets at the main entrance of Louis Armstrong Park on the day of the festival.
Recently, organizers of the Mac and Cheese Festival in New Orleans have been endeavoring to expand the number of vendors participating in the event to accommodate the growing popularity of the event in New Orleans. During the initial launch of the Mac and Cheese Festival in New Orleans, many people attended the event, depleting the supplies from many participating vendors before the event. Since then, the organizers of the Mac and Cheese Festival in New Orleans have been working to ensure that this does not happen again by trying to match the demand with supply. As part of this move, each participating vendor was set up to cater for 2 lines of customers, serving up to 5 non-mac items, and at least 1 mac n cheese dish.
Previously, the lineup included the likes of French Quater’s seafood veteran Ocean Grill, Manning’s Sports Bar and Grill at Harrah’s, House of Blues Bar and Restaurant, and The Big Cheesy, a famous grilled cheese establishment with locations in Uptown and Kenner.