The story
Jambalaya Festival in Gonzales
The Jambalaya Festival in Gonzales celebrates the town's status as the Jambalaya Capital of the World, a title first proclaimed by the governor when the festival began in 1968. The multi-day event centers on a competitive jambalaya cook-off alongside carnival rides, a car show, a 5K run, live music and a royalty pageant.
Gonzales sits in Ascension Parish along the Mississippi River corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, a town whose French and Spanish colonial roots trace to Spanish governor Luis de Unzaga's eighteenth-century settlement promotion efforts along the river.