By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

RESERVE – The first annual River Parishes Spring Fest officially began on Friday, April 5, but there is still plenty of time for residents of the River Parishes to get out and enjoy themselves during the remaining two days of the festival.
The festival was started by Riverlands Christian Center Church to celebrate the 25 years since its founding. The festival will continue through Sunday and features free admission for all attendees. Even though there is no admission price, Rita Perrilloux, the administrator of Historic Riverlands and Riverlands Christian Center, made it a point to distribute tickets for one free amusement park ride to all of children in St. John the Baptist Parish public schools, all for the sake of nostalgia.
“I went to high school at Pomona High (in California), and they have Pomona Fair every year in September. So we knew that the first week of school, we were all getting a free ticket to go to the fair. And I looked forward to that,” said Perrilloux. “It
was like ‘Back to school, ahhh bummer…but
the fair’s coming!’ I wanted to kind of duplicate that memory for the kids.”
The River Parishes Spring Fest is the collective effort of several non-profit organizations, such as Historic Riverlands, RJG Ministries and Little Leaders Learning Center. The event organizers also give credit to organizations such as New Orleans Plantation Country, Entergy and Nalco for their generous sponsorship.
The festival will consist of amusement park rides, gospel choirs, dance teams, games, arts and crafts booths and everyone’s favorite carnival foods: candy apples, crawfish, snowballs, tamales, popcorn, cotton candy and more. The three-day affair will also take time out from festivities to educate youth by honoring several notable community figures by inducting them into the Historic Riverlands Museum.
In addition to the usual carnival fun, there will be performances by local Christian artists such as Steven Perrilloux, Lynnez Gray, Jam-All Productions, Raw Productions, DJ Hippi, Audience of One Worshippers and Se7en Styles.
Perrilloux said she would like to make the festival a regular occurrence, depending on the success of this initial year.
“I believe in good clean fun — I believe you’re supposed to work hard and play hard too. I really want to provide a nice, fun, safe, clean atmostphere for the kids to enjoy,” said Perrilloux.
The River Parishes Spring Fest will take place at the Historic Riverland Christian Center Church located at 480 NW Third St.
in Reserve. The festival is free and open to
the public, though amusement park ride tickets will be sold in advance during the event. For more information about hours or performance schedules, visit www.riverparishfest.com.