The 85th Annual Rice Festival has officially kicked off today in Crowley.
The Rice Festival is the oldest and largest agricultural festival in Louisiana.
Crystal Abshire, Manager of Vanilla Bean said, "With like the rice festival and everything we are actually doing pretty good with covid we haven't had to close we were able to stay open the entire."
Residents from all over gather for the live music, carnival rides, and there are tons of businesses in the area that say they have seen an increase in business.
"Today we've been having lots of customers coming in and out and during the rice festival it brings people back home so everybody wants to come back to Ruddock's because they grew up on Ruddock's and another good thing about it, it also brings new people to Crowley" said Rhonda Bussy who is the owner of Ruddock's Bakery.
The Rice Festival is a celebration held to honor the rice industry and it's hard-working farmers.
Floats made out of rice and rice eating contest will be featured.
The festival will continue tomorrow with activities starting at 10 a.m. and it will end Sunday at 6 p.m.
