Oak Street Po-Boy Fest set to return this fall

NEW ORLEANS (NOLA WEEKEND) - After a two-year absence, the Oak Street Po-Boy Festival, the popular event celebrating New Orleans’ beloved sandwich, is set to return this fall.

The Oak Street Merchants, Residents and Property Owners, the group that organizes the annual event, announced the 14th annual festival will head back to Oak Street on Nov. 6.

This year’s festival will host more than 40 food vendors, four stages of music, an arts market and kids zone. The 2022 festival will also highlight the history of the po-boy with special programming and events, organizers said in a release.

The 2022 event will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

In previous years, the tasty tradition also featured a po-boy competition where local restaurants battle for top honors. Some of those past favorites among the list of award-winning po-boys include GW Fins’ Lobster Po-Boy, Parkway Bakery’s James Brown Po-Boy and the Nurnberger from Bratz Y’all.

The festival was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was replaced with Oak Street Po-Boy “To-Go” Fest, an event featuring a sampling of past food vendors’ best and award-winning po-boys. Efforts to host the festival in 2021 were unsuccessful following a fourth surge of COVID-19 in Louisiana, impacts from Hurricane Ida and restaurant industry staffing shortages.

Since 2007, the Oak Street Po-Boy Fest has honored New Orleans’ signature sandwich with nearly 50,000 attendees flocking the Oak Street corridor for music, food and shopping each fall.

Proceeds from the annual festival benefit Oak Street Merchants, Residents and Property Owners, whose mission is to stimulate the Oak Street corridor. A portion of proceeds also benefits Son of a Saint, a non-profit which exists to enhance the lives of fatherless boys through mentorship.

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