The Louisiana Forest Festival will be held April 25 and 26 at the Winn Parish, Louisiana, fairgrounds on state highway 34 south. Early on, there were questions about that, but a group stepped in to carry on with the annual festival in Winnfield.

"You're looking at a group who grabbed the job by the ears and took over organizing the event," explained Vernon Weeks at the Forest Festival Board meeting Monday, March 24.

"We need everybody who wants to help to come out," said Joe Lang, president of the Forest Festival board.

The festivities will kick off at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 25 with a parade of trucks, logging equipment and floats that will begin downtown and travel to the fairgrounds. At the fairgrounds, an opening ceremony, attended by several area politicians will be held, including an award for the best truck in the parade. Arts and craft booths as well as food vendors will be set up. At 6 p.m., the popular lawnmower races will begin on the midway.

Later, the LRCA - sanctioned rodeo will begin in the arena next to the fairgrounds.

On Saturday morning, at 8 a.m., the timber sports events will begin. These will include skidding, log loading and 4-H woodman skills. The axe throwing contest will be an elimination process with only the top ten showing on the stage. All others will compete to one side.

"The competition will be open for about two hours," said Lang. "Anyone can come by when they have a break and compete."

The logging equipment companies will exhibit the latest in equipment on the midway during the day.

Also on the midway, an obstacle course will be set up for drivers of 18-wheel trucks. Drivers will be expected to traverse the course without hitting a cone, back the trailer into a narrow spot and stop on a line drawn on the midway.

All day there will be arts, craft and food booths open.

An interesting story came up at the board meeting. While in South Louisiana, Roger Hanson discovered that there are other forest festivals in the state. Hanson ran upon a man who told him he was the Louisiana State cross-cut saw champion. Hanson, who had won that event at the Winn Parish festival, asked if he and his friends could come down and compete with the South Louisiana bunch in their festival. His answer was "Sure, come on down!"

"I tried to tell him we were professionals," Hanson said. "Terry told me to call him and warn him about what was going to happen when we competed with those guys. We knew we'd beat them."

Terry Taylor remembers calling the organizers in South Louisiana and trying to explain that they were professionals, with special equipment.

"I told him we were going to beat him. He got mad," Taylor recalled.

So the Winn Parish loggers competed.

"Their team cut the log with a cross cut saw in 24 seconds," Hanson said with a grin. "I cut it in seven seconds." However, Hanson felt it necessary to warn them. "You ain't seen nothing yet." The next competitor from Winn cut the log in 5 seconds.

This year's forest festival, organized by loggers who compete in the events, will prove to be just as exciting as any that has ever been held. There will be few changes, according to Lang.

"My theory is, if it runs smooth, leave it alone," Lang stated. That's exactly what they hope for at this year's annual Forest Festival in Winnfield, Louisiana.

Back