Jefferson Parish Louisiana Family Gras Festival
Metairie keeps its Carnival close to home. While the parades of New Orleans fill the news, the families of Jefferson Parish gather on the neutral ground of Veterans Memorial Boulevard for a celebration built around them, and the gathering carries a name of its own: Family Gras. The published name is shorter than the sheet title that heads this article, and it states the purpose plainly. Music rises from an open stage, local cooking scents the air across the plaza, children move between an art market and a kids zone, and then a parade rolls past the site as though the whole boulevard had been invited. The festival is free, it is outdoors, and it sits on ground the parish built for it. This article follows the celebration through the record the layers print, from the tenth annual gathering in February 2017 through the dates already announced for January 2027, and it sets out what a visitor will find in the music, the food, the parades, and the plaza itself.
About
Family Gras is the name the celebration carries in the layers that document it. The sheet title at the top of this article is never printed exactly as the name of the event, and the body of this article uses the published name throughout, keeping the sheet title only where the format requires it. The festival belongs to Metairie, the largest community in Jefferson Parish, and the parish seat sits elsewhere, in Gretna. That split is worth holding in mind: the seat holds the parish council, while the festival holds the boulevard.
The venue is Mardi Gras Plaza, a stretch of the Veterans Memorial Boulevard neutral ground across from Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie. The parish built the plaza on that neutral ground for the festival, and the choice of ground shapes the whole weekend. The stage stands outdoors, the art market and the kids zone spread across open ground, and the parades that roll past the site do so on the boulevard itself, so the festival and the parade route share the same street. The parish tourism bureau, Visit Jefferson Parish, runs the festival, and its own layers describe a weekend of free outdoor concerts with local and national acts, local cuisine, an art market, a kids zone, and sponsor booths.
Five dated editions stand in the record. The tenth annual gathering ran 17–19 February 2017. Later editions followed on 18–20 February 2022, 10–11 February 2023, and 21–23 February 2025, and the next edition is already announced for 29–30 January 2027. Admission is free across the layers, with one priced element in the record: a three-day VIP Royal Pass sold for ninety-nine dollars in 2022.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Published name | Family Gras |
| Host town | Metairie, the largest community in Jefferson Parish |
| Parish seat | Gretna |
| Venue | Mardi Gras Plaza, on the Veterans Memorial Boulevard neutral ground across from Lakeside Shopping Center |
| Organiser | The parish tourism bureau, Visit Jefferson Parish |
| Admission | Free, with a three-day VIP Royal Pass sold for ninety-nine dollars in 2022 |
| Tenth annual edition | 17–19 February 2017 |
| Most recent edition | 21–23 February 2025 |
| Next announced edition | 29–30 January 2027 |
| Parades | Krewes of Excalibur, Madhatters, Symphony, Centurions and Atlas roll past the site |
History
The record of Family Gras opens with a billing, not a birth date. The gathering was billed the tenth annual celebration in 2017, and the layers print that billing as it stands, without supplying a founding year. No arithmetic in this article turns the tenth annual billing into a start date, and no layer read supplies one. What the record does supply is a place built for the purpose: the parish constructed Mardi Gras Plaza on the Veterans Memorial Boulevard neutral ground for the festival, giving a free outdoor celebration a permanent home on the boulevard. The plaza, rather than any single edition, is the fixed point in the history.
For a useful comparison, see the Jefferson Parish Louisiana Creole Gumbo Festival for another county festival.
The dated editions that follow trace a Carnival-season gathering across a decade. The tenth annual edition ran 17–19 February 2017. The 2022 edition ran 18–20 February, and its layers record the three-day VIP Royal Pass at ninety-nine dollars alongside free admission to the grounds. The 2023 edition ran 10–11 February. The 2025 edition ran 21–23 February. The next edition is already announced for 29–30 January 2027, a January date where the earlier editions sat in February, and the announcement comes from the parish tourism layer itself. The celebration in New Orleans belongs to a different city, and its parades and events do not stand in for this one; Family Gras is a Jefferson Parish gathering on a Jefferson Parish boulevard, and the record keeps the two apart.
What to Expect
Music leads the weekend at Family Gras. The concerts are free and outdoors, and the layers describe local and national acts sharing the stage across the gathering, so a visitor can expect a full day of sound without buying a ticket. Local cuisine stands beside the stage, with food vendors serving the parish’s cooking in the open air, and an art market offers work from local makers between sets. The kids zone gives younger visitors a place of their own, and sponsor booths line the plaza with displays from the businesses that support the weekend.
Then the boulevard itself joins in. Mardi Gras parades roll past the festival site, and the layers name five krewes whose processions pass the plaza: Excalibur, Madhatters, Symphony, Centurions, and Atlas. The combination is the festival’s signature: a concert ground and a parade route sharing one stretch of Veterans Memorial Boulevard, with Lakeside Shopping Center across the way and the plaza holding the middle. The 2022 layers add one priced element to the picture, the three-day VIP Royal Pass at ninety-nine dollars, and everything else in the record stays free.
Planning Your Visit
Come to the plaza, not to a gate. Family Gras charges no admission, so a visit needs no ticket and no advance purchase, and the planning turns instead on timing and place. The venue is Mardi Gras Plaza, on the Veterans Memorial Boulevard neutral ground across from Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish, and Gretna, the parish seat, sits elsewhere, so a visitor navigating by the seat will land in the wrong town. Aim for the boulevard in Metairie, and look for the plaza on the neutral ground.
The dates move with Carnival season. The editions in the record fell in February in 2017, 2022, 2023, and 2025, while the next edition is announced for 29–30 January 2027, so a visitor should confirm the announced dates for the year of travel rather than assuming a February weekend. The concerts run outdoors, the food and art market spread across open ground, and the parades pass on the boulevard, so comfortable shoes and a plan for sun or a shower both earn their place.
A Sample Day at Family Gras
A visitor with a single day at the festival can let the plaza set the pace. Arrive in the late morning, when the art market is open and the kids zone is already busy, and walk the grounds once to learn the shape of the plaza before the crowds thicken. Midday belongs to the food vendors, where the local cuisine on offer gives the visit its flavour, and the early afternoon belongs to the stage, with free concerts carrying the plaza through the warmest hours. When a parade approaches, move toward the boulevard edge and watch the krewe roll past the site, then drift back to the art market as the procession clears. The evening closes with more music under the open sky, and a visitor who stays for the last set leaves with the sound of the stage still in the air.
How Family Gras Compares
The nearest comparison is also the one the record warns against. New Orleans holds the Carnival celebrations most visitors know first, and its parades and events belong to a different city. Family Gras sits across the parish line in Metairie, on a plaza the parish built for it, and its scale follows from that: a free outdoor weekend where the parades come to the festival, rather than a city-wide season where the visitor travels to the parade. The krewes that roll past the plaza — Excalibur, Madhatters, Symphony, Centurions, Atlas — pass a single site, and the audience watches from a festival ground rather than a curb claimed hours ahead.
A second comparison runs inside the festival itself. The grounds are free, and the only priced element the layers record is the three-day VIP Royal Pass of 2022, at ninety-nine dollars. The pass bought a premium view, while the concerts, the kids zone, the art market, and the passing parades stayed open to everyone. A visitor weighing the two finds the same music and the same parade either way; the difference is a reserved vantage, not a different festival.
Checklist
- Confirm the announced dates for the year of travel, since the record shows February editions and a January announcement for 2027.
- Head for Mardi Gras Plaza on the Veterans Memorial Boulevard neutral ground in Metairie, across from Lakeside Shopping Center.
- Remember that Gretna is the parish seat, not the festival town.
- Wear comfortable shoes for open ground and a parade edge on the boulevard.
- Bring sun protection and a layer for an evening outdoors.
- Plan for purchases at food stalls and the art market.
- Arrive early enough to walk the plaza before the crowds thicken.
- Keep younger visitors close near the kids zone and the parade edge.
- Watch for the krewes of Excalibur, Madhatters, Symphony, Centurions, and Atlas as they roll past.
- Leave time for the art market between musical sets.
Beyond the Festival
The plaza sits on a boulevard built for movement, and the ground around it repays a longer stay. Lakeside Shopping Center stands across Veterans Memorial Boulevard from the festival site, and the boulevard itself carries the parish’s everyday commerce past the plaza. Metairie, the parish’s largest community, holds the restaurants and shops a visitor reaches for after the music ends, and the town’s place in Jefferson Parish gives the festival its setting: a suburban parish gathering rather than a downtown spectacle. Gretna, the parish seat, sits elsewhere in the parish, where the parish council meets, and the contrast between the seat and the festival town sketches the parish in miniature — government in one town, celebration in the other.
Why Family Gras Matters
Family Gras matters because it puts Carnival on open ground and leaves the gate open. The festival charges no admission, its concerts play outdoors, and its parades roll past a plaza the parish built for the purpose, so a family can spend a whole day inside the celebration without spending anything to enter it. The parish tourism bureau runs the gathering, and the record shows it doing so across a decade of dated editions, from the tenth annual billing in 2017 through the dates announced for 2027. The krewes that pass the site — Excalibur, Madhatters, Symphony, Centurions, Atlas — tie the plaza to the wider Carnival season, while the art market and the kids zone keep the weekend rooted in the parish’s own makers and children. Its significance sits in the plaza itself: a stretch of neutral ground turned, each Carnival season, into a place where the parish gathers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What sets Family Gras apart from the Carnival celebrations in New Orleans?
Family Gras takes place in Metairie, in Jefferson Parish, on a plaza the parish built for the festival, while the Carnival celebrations of New Orleans belong to a different city. The parades that roll past the Family Gras site — the krewes of Excalibur, Madhatters, Symphony, Centurions, and Atlas — pass a single festival ground, and the concerts, food, art market, and kids zone all sit on that same ground, free to enter.
Is there any charge to enter the festival grounds?
No charge is recorded for entry. The layers describe the festival as free across its editions, and the only priced element in the record is the three-day VIP Royal Pass sold for ninety-nine dollars in 2022, which bought a premium view rather than admission. Food, art, and any future premium element are purchases of their own, not a gate fee.
Which parades pass the festival site?
The layers name five krewes whose processions roll past the plaza: Excalibur, Madhatters, Symphony, Centurions, and Atlas. The parades pass on Veterans Memorial Boulevard while the festival continues on the neutral ground, so a visitor can watch a procession and return to the stage without leaving the site.
What is there for children at Family Gras?
A kids zone stands among the festival’s regular features, alongside the art market, the food vendors, and the free outdoor concerts. Younger visitors can move between the kids zone and the parade edge, watching the krewes roll past, and the whole weekend is built around families, as the published name promises.
What to Expect From the Next Jefferson Parish Louisiana Family Gras Festival
How often is Jefferson Parish Louisiana Family Gras Festival held?
The layers document editions in 2017, 2022, 2023, and 2025, with the next edition already announced for 29–30 January 2027. The festival presents itself as a recurring Carnival-season gathering, and the announced 2027 dates show the parish planning the next edition well ahead of the season.
When is the next Jefferson Parish Louisiana Family Gras Festival?
The next edition announced in the layers is 29–30 January 2027, at Mardi Gras Plaza in Metairie. The dates sit in late January rather than February, where the 2017, 2022, 2023, and 2025 editions fell, so a visitor planning around the next gathering should hold the announced January dates rather than a February habit.
Will the dates change?
The record shows the calendar position shifting: February in 2017, 2022, 2023, and 2025, and late January announced for 2027. A visitor should confirm the announced dates for the year of travel before setting plans, since the layers give the dates as printed for each edition and do not promise one fixed weekend.
Family Gras is a small claim made well: a free weekend on a plaza built for it, with music, food, art, children, and parades sharing one stretch of boulevard in Metairie. The record gives the gathering a steady shape across a decade, from the tenth annual billing in 2017 to the dates announced for January 2027, and it gives the visitor a simple instruction with it — come to the plaza, bring the family, and let the parade roll past. The parish built the ground for exactly that, and each Carnival season the ground fills again.
