The Iowa Rabbit Festival started in 1986 to promote a local rabbit processing plant as well as to increase awareness of the local rabbit processing industry. The festival has grown into one of the largest events in our area and today money raised from this event is donated to the various civic, fraternal, and school organizations in the Iowa, Louisiana community that volunteer their time to make the festival successful. We are also proud to make a contribution to those Iowa High School graduating seniors by providing college scholarships.
The Iowa Rabbit Festival attracts over 20,000 people throughout the festival weekend and has grown to be one of the top 20 events in the Southeastern United States. The annual Rabbit Festival gets bigger and better every year. The event still features a rabbit show, and vendor booths but has added a carnival, pageants, and lots of live entertainment by local, regional, and national artists. The Iowa Rabbit Festival Rabbit Cook-Off features all types of rabbit cuisine, entertainment, and the extremely popular People’s Choice Award where you as a spectator can taste all different variations of rabbit dishes.
Unfortunately, for the first time since 1986, the festival broke a string of 33 consecutive years missing 2020, 2021, and 2022 due to the Corona Virus, Hurricanes Laura and Delta, and facility damages respectively. Despite the setbacks that we have all incurred through the last few years, we are determined and proud to say that we continued our commitment to provide college scholarships to graduating seniors during the 2020 and 2021 graduation years even after missing those two festival years.
