When Jeff Tarpley and his partners planned the inaugural Natchitoches Louisiana Bigfoot Festival, they braced for a modest crowd of true believers willing to spend a Saturday in September listening to researchers talk about the elusive creature. What they got instead was a line that stretched down the block outside the Natchitoches Event Center. By the time the doors closed on September 7, 2024, more than 2,000 guests had passed through — travelers from as far away as Montana and Pennsylvania, along with curious locals, skeptics, and a healthy share of what organizers call "closet Bigfooters," people who had quietly nursed an interest in the creature for years but never felt comfortable admitting it.
The turnout set the stage for what has become one of the state's most unexpected annual traditions. On Saturday, September 5, 2026, the Third Annual Natchitoches Louisiana Bigfoot Festival returns to the Natchitoches Event Center at 750 Second Street, running from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a slate of guest speakers, a vendor marketplace, a kids zone, and a Bigfoot Calling Contest. Admission is $15 for adults and $10 for children under twelve, with advance tickets available online.
Tarpley, a former military servicemember, policeman, and U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer who serves as the festival's coordinator, has been fascinated by Bigfoot since the 1960s, when the Patterson-Gimlin film — a grainy 16mm clip of a hairy, upright figure striding into the woods — first captured the American imagination. He has never seen Bigfoot himself, but he believes he heard one while hunting in Colorado with a friend, when he and his companion froze at the sound of what he describes as "tree knocks" — the rhythmic striking of wood against wood that researchers say Bigfoot uses to communicate. "It wasn't a limb breaking out of a tree," Tarpley said. "I've been a woodsman all my life, and that's not a limb breaking out of a tree. It's a piece of wood hitting another piece of wood violently and making a noise."
The festival's location is no accident. Natchitoches is the oldest permanent settlement within the borders of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase — a fact that Tarpley deploys with a wink. "We're the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase," Tarpley said. "Let's just bring it to Natchitoches, why not?"
The surrounding landscape lends the claim a measure of plausibility. Natchitoches sits at the edge of Kisatchie National Forest, more than 600,000 acres of dense, largely undeveloped woodland that Tarpley says is prime Bigfoot habitat. The region has produced its share of reported sightings, including a 2024 incident in which a group of teenagers claimed they saw the legendary creature in Kisatchie National Forest.
The 2026 speaker lineup features a roster of Bigfoot researchers. Headlining is Jason Kenzie. Joining him are Jim Lansdale, a DeSoto Parish researcher and Vietnam veteran who co-founded the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization; Robert Swain; and "Super" Dave Rogers. Country music artist and KRMD radio personality Trini Triggs will serve as master of ceremonies.
Lansdale brings a particularly vivid perspective. He says his first encounter came more than thirty years ago, when he and his oldest son went to check a deer feeder behind his in-laws' property and found something squatting beneath it. "It turned and looked at us, had huge red eyes, about the size of the bottom of a coke can, and then it darted off in the woods, but ran off on all fours," he recalled. Since then, he says, he has lost count of the tracks and sightings he has documented across Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. "They're everywhere," he said.
The festival is deliberately family-friendly, with a kids zone, photo opportunities with a costumed Bigfoot, and activities designed for all ages. The event also carries a conservationist thread; the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries attended the inaugural festival with educational materials, including a poster on how to identify Bigfoot evidence using conventional methods such as scat and footprints.
Whether or not Bigfoot ever makes a confirmed appearance, the festival has already proven one thing: in Natchitoches, the legend is big enough to draw a crowd.