The story
Bogalusa Blues and Heritage Festival in Bogalusa
The Bogalusa Blues and Heritage Festival celebrates the blues and roots music traditions of Washington Parish and the broader Florida Parishes region. Held in downtown Bogalusa, the event brings regional and touring blues acts to an outdoor stage alongside food and craft vendors, drawing music fans to a mill town with a genuine blues history.
Bogalusa grew up in Washington Parish in the early twentieth century as a company town built around the Great Southern Lumber Company's sawmill, one of the largest in the world at the time, drawing workers from across the rural Florida Parishes region and, notably, from Black communities whose musical traditions helped shape the area's blues and gospel scene.