The festival is here! 15th Annual Gretna Heritage Festival this weekend!

From it’s start with one stage and a couple of hundred attendees, the Gretna Heritage Festival has come a long, long way!  The fun kicks off again tonight and lasts through the weekend with a stellar line up of music, over 40 food booths, carnival rides and art, jewelry and craft booths to satisfy your need for retail therapy and more.

The weather forecast for Friday is looking a little damp, so throw on your raincoat, pull up your galoshes (or your shrimp boots – we don’t mind) and head on out to Gretna for an amazing start to the weekend.  Just look at the talent that will open the festival this year!

See the entire weekend music schedule 

And this is just the opening night!  Named to the Southeastern Tourism Society’s Top 20 Festivals, Gretna Fest welcomed over 130,000 people last year – it just keeps growing and growing as the word spreads about the quality of the music, the affordability of the food and the warm, welcoming people who make it all happen.

Tickets are $10 per day or $25 for a weekend pass and kids 12 and under are free.  Don’t want to hassle with trying to park nearby?  Free parking and a free shuttle during the festival will be available at the Westside Shopping Center behind Academy Sporting Goods and at Oakwood Center in Terrytown. Pedestrians ride free on the Gretna-Canal Street ferry.

Need more information?  Get it all here:

• Food
  Arts & Crafts
  Rides & Games
  German Beer Garden
  Italian Village

We will be in the Krewe of Choctaw booth selling shrimp poboys, catfish poboys and crawfish pies all weekend – stop in and say HI to the West Bank Living Team.  We’d love to meet you in person!

Just to get you in the mood, here are a few photos from the 2008 Festival

See you this weekend!