by Hanna Singh
The 2026 Ruston Peach Festival drew a record crowd of more than 35,000 people and generated an estimated $2.2 million economic impact for Lincoln Parish, continuing the event’s growth as one of north Louisiana’s premier festivals.
With traditions such as the Peach Car Show and new attractions including a fireworks show, the festival offered something for residents and visitors of all ages.
Newly-named President and CEO of Experience Ruston Tori Davis said she was pleased with the turnout and positive response during her first year in the role.
“We were very pleased with this year’s turnout for the festival and with all the positive feedback we’ve received after the event,” Davis said. “Our goal is always to create a fun, safe, and accessible event for our community and visitors to enjoy. When we see increases in attendance, length of stay, and economic impact to our area, its confirmation to our planning team that we’ve been successful in achieving that goal.”
The festival once again had record-breaking attendance; however, each year the festival brings in more than just visitors. The Peach festival has continued to make a substantial impression on the local community by bringing in millions of dollars to the parish.
This year, the festival weekend had an estimated economic impact of $2.2 million in the Lincoln Parish area, bringing more business to local vendors, restaurants and stores.
Manager of Fanbase in downtown Ruston, Cindy Bagwell, highlighted the positive affect that the festival has on the local store.
“The Peach Festival is one of our biggest weekends of the year,” Bagwell said. “We design and sell our own exclusive Peach Fest t-shirt every year which our customers love. Plus, with thousands of people downtown and where our location is, we see a significant increase in foot traffic and sales throughout the festival. It’s a huge boost to sales and we have so much fun too, participating every year.”
With the peach festival being hosted by Experience Ruston, the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Lincoln Parish, it has continued to grow as a major tourism event each year. After taking over the festival post-covid, Experience Ruston saw value in the event from not only a cultural standpoint but also an economic one. They have continued to make adjustments and additions to further the impact of the festival and offer more to visitors of the event, including once again making the event free of admission in 2024.
“It’s really one of the best days of the years for local businesses,” Davis said. “We keep it free for admission now and especially try to keep things free in the kid’s zone. We never want cost to be a reason that people aren’t able to attend the festival. We would rather you spend dollars on our local businesses than on admission, and then it creates transactions that benefit our whole community.”
Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker praised the success of the 2026 Peach Festival and highlighted the unique aspect that brought more opportunities this year.
“I think it was one of the best we’ve ever had. It looked to me like the attendance was better than we’ve ever had.” Walker said. “All of the businesses in town that I talked to that were open Friday night for the preview and Saturday had incredible days. I think Lauren (Dowden) and Tori did an incredible job, and all those people that worked with them. You know, they made some changes this year, and I’m sure we’ll make some more changes every year trying to continue to improve it.”
