St. Tammany Parish Louisiana Covington Three Rivers Art Festival
Every November, Columbia Street in downtown Covington fills with easels, tents, music and the smell of food from local vendors, as the Covington Three Rivers Art Festival turns five city blocks of the Cultural Arts District into an open-air gallery. The gathering is known in print as the Three Rivers Art Festival and as the Covington Three Rivers Art Festival, and it has grown into one of the largest art weekends on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. More than two hundred artists from across the United States bring work to the juried show, while a student competition fills another corner of the street with more than four hundred pieces by local youth. The whole weekend is free to attend, and a free public concert at the Covington Trailhead closes the Saturday evening.
About
The Covington Three Rivers Art Festival is a juried fine-art show held on Columbia Street in downtown Covington, the parish seat of Saint Tammany Parish. The festival takes over five city blocks of the Cultural Arts District, with artist booths lining the street, demonstrations unfolding in the open, and food vendors serving visitors between the tents. A children’s village gives younger visitors their own place to make and play, and a student art competition shows work by schoolchildren from the parish.
The festival began in 1997 with forty-nine local artists. In the years since, it has grown to more than two hundred exhibitors, and regional news layers put annual attendance at more than fifty thousand visitors. One stated purpose of the gathering is to support art education for Saint Tammany Parish school children, and the student competition is the clearest expression of that aim. The festival coordinator, referred to in regional news layers by role, oversees the event, though no organiser organisation name is printed in the layers read.
Admission is free, according to the organiser’s own site and multiple layers. Families can wander in and out without paying at a gate. The festival is held each November, with the most recent dated editions falling in the middle of the month, from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon on both days.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Information |
| Event | Covington Three Rivers Art Festival, also printed as the Three Rivers Art Festival |
| Host town | Covington, the parish seat of Saint Tammany Parish |
| Venue | Columbia Street, downtown Covington Cultural Arts District, across five city blocks |
| Saturday concert | Covington Trailhead, Saturday evening, free |
| Admission | Free |
| Founded | 1997, with forty-nine local artists |
| Artists | More than two hundred exhibitors from across the United States |
| Student competition | More than four hundred works by local youth |
| Annual visitors | More than fifty thousand |
| Latest dated editions | Fifteenth and sixteenth of November 2025; fourteenth and fifteenth of November 2026 |
History
The festival was founded in 1997, when forty-nine local artists set up in Covington to show and sell their work. A state magazine layer traces that beginning and the growth that followed: from a small local gathering to a juried show with more than two hundred exhibitors drawn from across the United States.
For a useful comparison, see the St. Mary Parish Louisiana Mardi Gras Festival for another county festival.
The dated editions in the record show the festival’s steady rhythm. The thirteenth and fourteenth of November 2021 were billed as the twenty-fifth anniversary. The eleventh and twelfth of November 2023 were billed as the twenty-seventh year. The fifteenth and sixteenth of November 2025 were billed as the twenty-ninth year, running from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon on both days. The fourteenth and fifteenth of November 2026 are listed for the same hours, ten in the morning until five in the afternoon on both days.
Through those years, the festival’s purpose stayed constant. A state magazine layer says one purpose of the gathering is to support art education for Saint Tammany Parish school children, and the student art competition has become a fixture of the weekend, with more than four hundred works by local youth on display. Regional news layers put annual attendance at more than fifty thousand visitors. The venue has stayed on Columbia Street in the Cultural Arts District, spreading across five city blocks, with the Saturday-evening concert at the Covington Trailhead. The venue has stayed on Columbia Street in the Cultural Arts District, spreading across five city blocks, with the Saturday-evening concert at the Covington Trailhead.
What to Expect
Visitors arriving on Columbia Street find a juried fine-art show spread across five city blocks, with more than two hundred artists showing painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, jewellery, textiles and other media. Artists stand in their booths, ready to talk about their methods, and live art demonstrations let visitors watch a piece take shape rather than only seeing the finished result.
Live music plays through the weekend, and local food vendors serve visitors between the tents. The children’s village gives younger visitors a place of their own, with activities suited to small hands and short attention spans. The student art competition, featuring more than four hundred works by local youth, hangs nearby.
On Saturday evening, the focus shifts to the Covington Trailhead for a free public concert. Sunday brings a second full day on Columbia Street, from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon, with the same artists, demonstrations and vendors, and a quieter pace as the weekend winds down.
Planning Your Visit
The festival runs from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon on both Saturday and Sunday, and admission is free, so there is no ticket to buy and no gate to queue at. Arrive early on Saturday if you want the first look at the juried show, when the booths are freshly set and the artists have time to talk. The street fills as the day goes on.
Wear comfortable shoes. The festival spreads across five city blocks, and a full circuit of the booths, the demonstrations, the children’s village and the student competition takes a good part of a day. Bring sun protection and water. If you are buying art, bring a way to carry it: many pieces are large or fragile, and artists can usually wrap a purchase, but a sturdy bag of your own helps.
The Saturday-evening concert at the Covington Trailhead is free, and it is a natural end to the first day. If you plan to stay for it, keep an eye on the time as the street show closes at five, and allow yourself a comfortable walk to the Trailhead. Sunday is the calmer day, and a good choice for visitors who prefer a slower pace and longer conversations with the artists.
The organiser’s own listing layer carries a scam warning about fraudulent vendor-space offers claiming to be the festival. Those offers are not the festival, and they should be ignored. Anyone hoping to exhibit should deal only with the festival’s own published arrangements.
Sample Itinerary
A Saturday visit might begin at ten in the morning on Columbia Street, with a slow walk through the first blocks of the juried show while the booths are still quiet. By midday, take a break with the local food vendors, then spend the early afternoon in the children’s village and at the student art competition, where more than four hundred works by local youth are on display.
In the late afternoon, make a second pass through the booths you liked best. As five o’clock approaches and the street show closes, head to the Covington Trailhead for the free public concert on Saturday evening.
Sunday can be a shorter visit. Arrive at ten in the morning, revisit the artists whose work caught your eye on Saturday, and use the quieter hours for longer conversations. The children’s village and the student competition are worth a second look in the morning light.
Comparison
Covington’s art festival belongs to a family of November art gatherings across Louisiana, but its scale sets it apart. Many town art shows feature a few dozen local makers; this one brings more than two hundred artists from across the United States to a single street, and pairs them with a student competition of more than four hundred works.
The free admission also marks it out. Some festivals charge at the gate, and some charge for individual attractions; here the street, the demonstrations, the children’s village, the student competition and the Saturday-evening concert at the Covington Trailhead are all free.
The venue matters too. Columbia Street in the Cultural Arts District is a walkable downtown street, not a fairground, so the festival feels like part of the town rather than a separate enclosure. The five-block spread keeps the crowds moving, and the Trailhead concert gives Saturday evening a destination of its own. The five-block spread keeps the crowds moving, and the Trailhead concert gives Saturday evening a destination of its own.
Checklist
- Arrive at ten in the morning for the quietest first look at the juried show
- Wear comfortable shoes for five city blocks of walking
- Bring sun protection and water for a full day outdoors
- Carry a sturdy bag for any art you buy
- Set aside time for the live art demonstrations
- Visit the children’s village if you have younger visitors with you
- Allow a slow look at the student art competition and its four hundred-plus works
- Eat from the local food vendors along Columbia Street
- Keep Saturday evening free for the concert at the Covington Trailhead
- Ignore any vendor-space offer that does not come through the festival’s own published arrangements
Beyond the Festival
Covington itself rewards a longer stay. The parish seat of Saint Tammany Parish sits on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and its downtown Cultural Arts District, where the festival takes place, is worth exploring beyond the festival weekend. Columbia Street and its surroundings hold shops, galleries and places to eat that stay open through the year, and the district’s walkable scale makes it easy to explore on foot.
The Covington Trailhead, where the Saturday-evening concert is held, is a hub for the area’s trails and a gathering place in its own right. Visitors who come for the festival often return to walk or cycle the paths that start there. The town’s position as the parish seat gives it a civic centre as well as a cultural one, and the combination of a working downtown and an arts district is part of what makes the festival feel rooted rather than temporary.
For visitors staying the weekend, the festival’s November timing offers mild weather for walking the five blocks and for the outdoor concert. The town’s restaurants and lodgings fill up on festival weekends, so an overnight stay is worth arranging in advance, and a Sunday morning walk through the district before the festival opens is a pleasant way to start the second day.
Significance
The Covington Three Rivers Art Festival matters to its town in two ways. First, it brings more than fifty thousand visitors a year to a five-block stretch of Columbia Street, supporting the artists who exhibit, the food vendors who feed the crowds, and the shops and restaurants of the Cultural Arts District. For a downtown of Covington’s size, a weekend of that scale is a significant event in the local calendar. For a downtown of Covington’s size, a weekend of that scale is a significant event in the local calendar.
Second, and more lastingly, the festival supports art education for Saint Tammany Parish school children. The student art competition, with more than four hundred works by local youth, is not a side attraction: it is the visible sign of a purpose that the festival has carried since its early years. That link between a professional show and a youth exhibition is the festival’s most distinctive feature, and the reason it has grown from forty-nine local artists in 1997 into a gathering that draws artists from across the United States.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kinds of work appear in the juried show?
The juried fine-art show features more than two hundred artists from across the United States, working in painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, jewellery, textiles and other media. The range of styles and prices is wide, and artists stand in their booths to talk about their methods.
How can younger visitors take part in the weekend?
The children’s village gives younger visitors activities of their own, and the student art competition displays more than four hundred works by local youth. Both are free, and both sit within the five-block festival area on Columbia Street.
How can I tell a genuine festival message from a fake one?
The organiser’s own listing layer carries a warning about fraudulent vendor-space offers claiming to be the festival. Those offers are not the festival and should be ignored. Anyone hoping to exhibit should deal only with the festival’s own published arrangements.
What happens on Saturday evening after the street show closes?
A free public concert takes place at the Covington Trailhead on Saturday evening. The street show closes at five in the afternoon, and the concert is open to everyone, drawing festival visitors and local residents alike.
What to Expect From the Next St. Tammany Parish Louisiana Covington Three Rivers Art Festival
How often is St. Tammany Parish Louisiana Covington Three Rivers Art Festival held?
The festival is an annual November gathering, held on a Saturday and Sunday in the middle of the month, from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon on both days. The dated editions in the record follow that pattern, with the most recent listed for the fourteenth and fifteenth of November 2026.
When is the next St. Tammany Parish Louisiana Covington Three Rivers Art Festival?
The next listed edition falls on the fourteenth and fifteenth of November 2026, running from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon on both days, on Columbia Street in downtown Covington, with the free Saturday-evening concert at the Covington Trailhead.
Will the dates change?
The festival has kept a mid-November weekend pattern across the dated editions in the record, from the twenty-fifth anniversary in 2021 through the twenty-ninth year in 2025 and the listed 2026 edition. A visitor planning ahead should still confirm the exact weekend in the organiser’s own published listing before travelling, since the precise Saturday and Sunday shift from year to year.
The Covington Three Rivers Art Festival has grown from forty-nine local artists in 1997 into a free, two-day gathering that fills five blocks of Columbia Street with work from across the United States and from the parish’s own schoolchildren. It is, at its heart, a street full of makers and the people who come to meet them, and its November return is one of the fixed points of the year in Covington.
