By T. Scott Boatright
The first Lincoln Parish Park Festival will be held from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. May 15 at an entrance fee of $10 per car entering the park.
All proceeds raised will go directly to the park for improvements and upgrades.
The event will include a car show sponsored by Northern Louisiana Medical Center featuring antique cars, classic cars and muscle cars as well as trikes and bikes. There will also be 20 vintage Airstreams (travel trailers) on display at the park’s campground site.
Food trucks will be part of the festival as well as arts and crafts vendor and a silent auction.
“We want people who have been sheltered in place all this time to come out and enjoy,” said District 11 Lincoln Parish Police Juror Annette Straughter, who developed the idea for the festival. “We will have a Kid’s zone, which I’m excited about because I plan to take part of it, that will include the National Guard bringing in an 80- by 40-foot inflatable obstacle course as well as a gaming trailer that will include X-Box games on it. And we’ll have a inflatable slide for kids.
“The Louisiana Lunatics, a high energy dance group, will perform on stage, and also will do facepainting for the kids. There’s a lot over there for the kids that we’ll be doing.”
A regional cornhole tournament sponsored by the Ruston-Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau is expected to bring in between 300 and 400 people for the tournament.
“It will be a festival, and what’s a festival without music?,” Straughter asked. We’ll have a lot of people on the Entertainment Stage, including some local celebrities like Seth Hightower and Monty Russell. And then I have a young man who’s a student at Louisiana Tech (Austin Stafford), who was on “American Idol” last season. He called me up and he wants to perform, so we’re going to have a big day at the park, and the neat thing about it is you can bring your entire family for only $10 a car. Not person, per car. So bring out your lawn chairs and spend the day at the park.”
