The Yambilee Festival was a festival that was held annually in

Opelousas, Louisiana :''Opelousas is also a common name of the flathead catfish.'' Opelousas (french: Les Opélousas; Spanish: ''Los Opeluzás'') is a small city and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190 were ...

, United States. The Yambilee Festival started on the Wednesday of the last full weekend of October and continued throughout the weekend. The Yambilee was founded by two friends, native Texan J.W. "Bill" Low and Felix Dezauche, a yam shipper and processor as a way to honor the local

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...

industry. According to J.W. Low, the ''

raison d'être Raison d'être is a French expression commonly used in English, meaning "reason for being" or "reason to be". Raison d'être may refer to: Music * Raison d'être (band), a Swedish dark-ambient-industrial-drone music project * ''Raison D'être' ...

'' of the festival was to "assist and encourage the advancement of the material prosperity and progress of the State of

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, Southwest Louisiana and

St. Landry Parish St. Landry Parish (french: Paroisse de Saint-Landry) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 83,384. The parish seat is Opelousas. The parish was established in 1807. St. Landry Parish com ...

by stimulating local and national interest in Louisiana farm produce, particularly Louisiana Sweet potatoes (yams) and to provide colorful programs of entertainment capable of generating nationwide publicity and advertising for Louisiana yams and other farm produce." The first Louisiana Yambilee celebration, held October 9 and 10, 1946, was organized by the first

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

whose members included: J.W. Low, J.F. Dezauche, Anthony Chachere, Charles Bourque, Lee Mizzi, J.P. Barnett, Arnold Winsberg, J.M. Landry, A.B. Reed, Allen Dezauche, John Thistlewaite, Alex Watkins and Seth Lewis not to mention Opelousas

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ad ...

, city, parish and state officials, local organizations and countless volunteers. The first Louisiana Yambilee festival queen was Jean Horecky of Church Point. There were two Co-Mr. Yams, Jack Herbert and Alfred Lagrange, both from Opelousas. The festival would crown its first king, R.J. Castille of Sunset, during the second festival. In 2012, the Yambilee Festival was discontinued due to both lack of funding and extreme lack of public support.

References

External links

Louisiana Yambilee Association
official site
Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission
Festivals in Louisiana Tourist attractions in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana Food and drink festivals in the United States Opelousas, Louisiana 1946 establishments in Louisiana 2012 disestablishments in Louisiana Festivals established in 1946 Recurring events disestablished in 2012 Sweet potatoes {{US-cuisine-stub