By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – A weekend of great weather and a handful of new attractions made for another well attended Andouille Festival this past weekend in LaPlace, according to parish officials.

Parish spokesperson Paige Braud said about 18,000 people walked through the gates of the three-day festival, bringing in a final gate total of more than $35,000. She said those funds are split between the parish and the LaPlace Lions Club, whose members manned the admission tent all weekend long.

“The figures are pretty close to final numbers from last year, which was also very successful for us,” Braud said. “We are looking forward already to next October.”

Braud said new attractions, such as the children’s art tent and the Gospel Music stage, were incredibly popular and added some new flavor to an already eclectic yearly event.

“The both definitely added a new interest to the festival,” Braud said of the two new features. “Both were very well attended and stayed full. Look for them again next year.”

Braud said the Gospel tent, which included various local acts, was brought in by request from residents looking for more musical variety. She said the children’s art tent was part of a grant from the Houma Regional Arts Council that the parish will go after again next year.

Braud said one new feature added last year, the pay-one-price ride ticket, was again wildly successful with more than 300 tickets sold throughout the weekend.

She also said moving the Andouille run from Sunday morning to Saturday morning encouraged more participation in both events.

“We had more than 50 participants in the Andouille run,” Braud said. “We were also able to sell all 100 spots to the Andouille Brunch on Sunday.”