St. Landry Parish Louisiana Cajun Mardi Gras Festival
In Eunice, a small prairie town in Saint Landry Parish, Mardi Gras arrives as a five-day gathering that spreads through downtown streets, out across open prairie, and back into town again. Masked riders on horseback, fiddles and accordions, a children’s run, a parade of pets, and a pot of gumbo that begins with a chicken chased across a field all belong to the same week. The celebration is collectively known as the Cajun Mardi Gras Festival, built around the Traditional Courir de Mardi Gras rather than around floats passing a grandstand.
The heart of the event is the Courir, a ride in which costumed participants travel through the countryside on horseback, stopping at farmhouses and gathering ingredients along the way, and returning to town with a chicken that becomes part of a communal gumbo shared by everyone. Around that ride, the five days fill with music jam sessions, street dances, cooking demonstrations, a stage show at the Liberty Theatre, contests for accordion and fiddle players, and dance lessons for visitors. Eunice is billed as Louisiana’s Prairie Cajun Capital, and during this week the town wears that billing plainly.
About
The Cajun Mardi Gras Festival is the collective name for the five-day Eunice celebration that runs through the days before Mardi Gras Day. A state magazine layer describes the celebration as collectively known by that name, and the same gathering is also called the Eunice Mardi Gras Celebration, while its central ride is the Traditional Courir de Mardi Gras. The sheet title for this article uses the parish-wide form, but the event itself belongs to Eunice, a town in Saint Landry Parish that is not the parish seat. Opelousas holds the seat, while Eunice holds the festival.
The festival is not a single-day parade but a stretch of five days. In 2026 the five-day festival ran from 13 February to 17 February, with Mardi Gras Day itself falling on 17 February. The previous year the Eunice Mardi Gras Celebration ran from 28 February to 4 March 2025, with the Courir de Mardi Gras and the Chicken Run taking place on Mardi Gras Day, 4 March 2025.
No single organiser name form is documented in the layers read, and this article does not invent one. What the record shows is a community-wide effort, with a parish tourist-commission layer and a state magazine layer describing the programme and a radio layer carrying the dates and the children’s run.
For a useful comparison, see the St. John the Baptist Parish Louisiana Andouille Festival for another county festival.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Published name | Cajun Mardi Gras Festival, also called the Eunice Mardi Gras Celebration |
| Host town | Eunice, Saint Landry Parish |
| Parish seat | Opelousas |
| Main venue | Downtown Eunice, Second Street |
| Children’s run venue | Eunice Recreation Complex |
| 2026 dates | 13–17 February 2026, five days |
| Mardi Gras Day 2026 | 17 February 2026 |
| 2025 dates | 28 February–4 March 2025 |
| Signature event | Traditional Courir de Mardi Gras with the Chicken Run |
| Organiser | No single organiser form documented in the layers read |
History
The Eunice Courir de Mardi Gras reaches back to the time when the town itself was first established in the late nineteenth century, according to a parish tourist-commission layer. That is the history as the record gives it: a tradition tied to the founding of the town, and no founding year for the festival is stated in any layer read. The Courir is a rural Carnival custom with roots in the French countryside, where masked revellers travelled from house to house gathering food for a communal meal, and in Eunice that custom took hold on the prairie and stayed.
Eunice is billed as Louisiana’s Prairie Cajun Capital, a billing carried by a state magazine layer, and the festival is the week when that billing is most visible. The town sits in the prairie country of Saint Landry Parish, away from the river parishes and the larger cities, and its Carnival has kept a country character that larger celebrations have lost. The music is Cajun music played on fiddle and accordion, the food is cooked in the Cajun manner, and the language of the celebration is the Cajun French that older residents still speak. The festival presents a living tradition that outsiders are invited to join, through the dance lessons, the open jam sessions, and the communal meal.
What to Expect
Visitors should come ready to move, because the Cajun Mardi Gras Festival is not a seated event. The Traditional Courir de Mardi Gras is the centre of the celebration, and it is a ride rather than a parade: masked riders on horseback set out from town, travel across the prairie, and return with the ingredients for a communal gumbo, above all the chicken that is chased and caught in the Chicken Run on Mardi Gras Day. The Chicken Run draws the largest crowds, and the gumbo that follows is shared, because the meal is the reason the ride exists.
Alongside the ride, the programme fills the five days with music and dancing. Cajun music jam sessions bring musicians together in informal gatherings, and street dances spill out onto Second Street in the evenings. The Liberty Theatre hosts a show during the festival, and the accordion and fiddle contest gives the town’s best players a stage. Cajun dance lessons are offered for visitors who want to learn the two-step and the waltz.
Children have their own place through Lil’ Mardi Gras, a children’s run held at the Eunice Recreation Complex, and the Paw Parade, in which pets join the festivities in costume. The Cajun Boucherie, a traditional hog butchering, is part of the programme, and cooking demonstrations show visitors how the dishes of the season are prepared.
Planning Your Visit
Aim for Eunice, not Opelousas. Opelousas is the parish seat, but the festival gathers downtown in Eunice. The main venue is downtown Eunice, centred on Second Street, and most of the music, dancing and food is within walking distance once you are downtown. Lil’ Mardi Gras takes place at the Eunice Recreation Complex, so families should allow time to move between the complex and the downtown streets.
Timing matters more here than at a single-day festival, because the celebration runs for five days. The 2026 edition ran from 13 February to 17 February, with Mardi Gras Day on 17 February, and the 2025 edition ran from 28 February to 4 March, with Mardi Gras Day on 4 March. The Courir and the Chicken Run fall on Mardi Gras Day itself, so anyone who wants to see the ride should plan to be in Eunice on that final day.
On the question of cost, no general gate price is stated in any layer read, so this article does not state one. What is documented is a participant fee: the Courir registration fee of forty dollars per person is a fee for taking part in the ride, not a charge for entering the festival. Dress for a prairie February, cool in the morning and warm by the afternoon, and wear shoes that can handle streets and fields in the same day.
A Sample Itinerary
Arrive in Eunice on the first day and spend the afternoon walking Second Street, learning the downtown layout. In the evening, join a Cajun music jam session and stay for a street dance to learn the first steps of the Cajun two-step.
On the second day, take a Cajun dance lesson in the morning, so that the steps are under your feet before the evening dances begin, and spend the afternoon at the cooking demonstrations, watching gumbo and other Cajun dishes prepared and learning the techniques behind them. In the evening, attend the Liberty Theatre show.
On the third and fourth days, look for the accordion and fiddle contest, which showcases the musicianship at the heart of Cajun music, and spend time among the food vendors and craft stalls along Second Street. Families should make time for Lil’ Mardi Gras at the Eunice Recreation Complex and the Paw Parade, and the Cajun Boucherie is worth seeing on one of these days.
On Mardi Gras Day itself, be in place early for the Traditional Courir de Mardi Gras and the Chicken Run, the ride out across the prairie and the chase that ends with the chicken for the communal gumbo. Watch the riders return to town, follow the crowd to the gumbo, and share the meal that the ride was organised to produce.
A Comparison
The Eunice celebration stands apart from the better-known Mardi Gras festivals of Louisiana because its centre is a ride rather than a parade. In a city parade, floats pass a crowd that stands behind barriers and catches what is thrown. In Eunice, the crowd is part of the event, and the meal at the end is cooked from what the ride gathered. That difference is why the festival appeals to visitors who want to take part in Carnival rather than watch it.
The distinction also separates the Eunice celebration from the other courir runs in the region. The Opelousas and Cankton courir runs are separate events, and the Lafayette Mardi Gras festival is a separate gathering in the same parish, and none of them should be confused with the Eunice celebration. Each courir run belongs to its own town, with its own riders, its own route, and its own gumbo.
Compared with a single-day food or music festival, the Eunice celebration asks more of its visitors and gives more in return, because its programme is spread across five days and its shape builds toward the ride and the meal on Mardi Gras Day.
Checklist
- Aim for Eunice, not Opelousas
- Plan to be in Eunice on Mardi Gras Day for the Courir and the Chicken Run
- Allow several days if possible
- Walk Second Street first to learn the downtown layout
- Take a Cajun dance lesson early
- Attend a cooking demonstration to learn the dishes behind the food stalls
- Watch the accordion and fiddle contest for the finest playing of the week
- Bring children to Lil’ Mardi Gras at the Eunice Recreation Complex
- Do not miss the Paw Parade
- Wear shoes that can handle streets, fields and the recreation complex
- Dress for a cool prairie morning and a warmer afternoon
- Share the communal gumbo on Mardi Gras Day
Beyond the Festival
Eunice itself repays a visit beyond the five days of Carnival. The town is billed as Louisiana’s Prairie Cajun Capital, and that billing rests on more than the festival: the Cajun music, the Cajun French language, and the food traditions of the prairie are part of everyday life here. The Liberty Theatre, which hosts a show during the festival, is a landmark of the town’s cultural life.
The prairie around Eunice is worth a drive, because it is the landscape the Courir rides through. The parish seat of Opelousas is a short drive away, with its own history and its own courir run, which is a separate event from the Eunice celebration.
The wider Cajun country of south Louisiana lies to the south and west, with Lafayette as its largest city and its own Mardi Gras festival, which is again a separate event from the Eunice celebration. The Eunice festival is a good introduction to that wider country, because it shows Cajun Carnival at its most traditional and most participatory.
Why It Matters
The Cajun Mardi Gras Festival matters because it keeps a rural Carnival tradition alive in its original form. The Courir de Mardi Gras is a custom that predates the parades and the beads and the grand balls, and in Eunice it is still practised as a community ride that ends in a shared meal. That continuity is the result of families and neighbours returning year after year, teaching the dance steps to their children and cooking the gumbo that the ride provides.
It matters also because it is participatory in a way that few large festivals are. Visitors are not kept behind barriers but invited into the dance, the jam session, the cooking demonstration, and the communal meal, and that invitation is the heart of the celebration.
Finally, it matters because it anchors Eunice itself. A small prairie town can be overlooked on a map, but a festival that draws visitors from across Louisiana and beyond gives the town a place in the state’s cultural life. The billing of Louisiana’s Prairie Cajun Capital is not a slogan but a description, and the Cajun Mardi Gras Festival is the week when that description is proved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which town hosts the Cajun Mardi Gras Festival?
Eunice hosts the festival. Eunice is a town in Saint Landry Parish, and it is not the parish seat. Opelousas holds the seat, while the celebration gathers in downtown Eunice, centred on Second Street.
What makes the Courir different from a parade?
The Courir is a ride, not a parade. Masked riders on horseback travel out across the prairie and return to town, and the Chicken Run on Mardi Gras Day ends with a chicken that becomes part of a communal gumbo shared by everyone.
Do visitors need to pay to enter the festival?
No general gate price is stated in any layer read, so this article does not state one. What is documented is a participant fee: the Courir registration fee of forty dollars per person is a fee for taking part in the Courir, not a charge for entering the festival.
Can children take part in the celebration?
Yes. Lil’ Mardi Gras is a children’s run held at the Eunice Recreation Complex, and the Paw Parade gives pets a place in the festivities as well. The dance lessons, jam sessions and street dances are open to visitors of all ages, and the communal gumbo is shared by everyone.
What to Expect From the Next St. Landry Parish Louisiana Cajun Mardi Gras Festival
How often is St. Landry Parish Louisiana Cajun Mardi Gras Festival held?
The celebration is held each year in the days before Mardi Gras Day, running for five days and reaching its height with the Courir and the Chicken Run on Mardi Gras Day itself.
When is the next St. Landry Parish Louisiana Cajun Mardi Gras Festival?
The most recent documented edition ran from 13 February to 17 February 2026, with Mardi Gras Day on 17 February 2026. A later edition is not announced in the layers read, and the timing of any later gathering follows the Carnival calendar.
Will the dates change?
The dates follow the Carnival calendar, so they fall in February or early March depending on when Mardi Gras Day lands in a given year. The 2025 edition ran from 28 February to 4 March, and the 2026 edition ran from 13 February to 17 February.
The Cajun Mardi Gras Festival in Eunice is Carnival as the prairie keeps it: a ride across open country, a chicken chased for a communal pot, music on fiddle and accordion, dances learned on the street, and a town that opens its doors to anyone willing to join in.
