Oak Street Po-Boy Festival
Sunday November 18 (11:00 AM - 07:00 PM)
The Oak Street Po-Boy Festival is held every year in mid-November along a commercial strip of Oak Street in the city’s Carrollton neighborhood. Not only is the festival a culinary celebration of a famous sandwich, it also celebrates the rebirth of a once-thriving shopping district with roots as deep as the neighborhood itself. Carrollton was a separate city until it was annexed by New Orleans in 1874, and Oak Street was its commercial hub.
The one-day-only event features live music, arts and handicrafts and – of course — booths offering many different types of po-boys. Fried shrimp, oysters and catfish, along with ham and cheese and roast beef are the favorites but there are many other choices as well. Coffee shops and cozy little dining establishments offer their specialties, as do larger venues like Jacques-Imo’s Restaurant and the world-renowned Maple Leaf Bar with its live music and large dance floor.
Festival organizers bill the event as an effort to “re-create that warm feeling of small-town Main Street,” while displaying the extensive infrastructural improvements that have been made to the street in recent years. The festival is not only pedestrian-friendly, it is also bike-friendly. Sufficient lock-up racks for bicycles are expected to be available by fest time.
Price
Entry is FREE, food prices vary.