There’s one place to be this weekend, and that’s where the fun multiplies faster than rabbits with each passing year. The Iowa Rabbit Festival will host a cook off, an unbelievable stellar lineup of 13 entertainers, a rabbit show just-for-fun and for the serious showman and vendors galore Friday, March 15, and Saturday, March 16, inside the Burton Coliseum. Admission is $10 Friday and $15 on Saturday. Kids 12 and under are free.

The recently updated Burton Complex camper hookups will be available and include 30/50 amp service, water and sewage. (An individual spot is $150 plus fees and comes with a parking pass and armbands for the weekend. Call Burton Coliseum for more info.) No golf carts will be allowed.

On Friday, Drop Nine will open on the mainstage at 7:30 p.m. Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys go on at 8:30 p.m. Rusty Metoyer and the Zydeco Crush appear at 9:30 p.m. and the music doesn’t stop until Dustin Sonnier makes his last strum on the guitar.

You can put it in a sauce piquant or gumbo…

Ricky Vincent thinks the same thing about rabbits that Bubba Blue thought about shrimp in the Forest Gump movie.  Remember Bubba’s line? “You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it.” And he went on.

Vincent has been hunting, cleaning, cooking and eating rabbits for most of his life. “It’s good, lean meat and it tastes good,” he said.  “I know we’ll have gumbo, sauce piquant and fried rabbit, but these cooks get pretty creative. Have you ever tried rabbit lo mein?”

Saturday cook-off stage entertainment will feature Judd Bares at 10 a.m., Wyatt Istre at 11:30 and The Luke Huval Band at 1 p.m.

Admission covers tasting, and the People’s Choice winner will be determined by which cook has the most votes. Every vote is $1.

The Saturday main stage entertainment begins at 4:30 p.m. with Lacour. John Dale Hebert goes on at 5:30. Charlie Wayne steps up to the mic at 6:30. Steel Shot plays at 7:30. L.A. Roxx rocks at 8:30. The Times of Acadiana’s Best Cajun Band for 16 years in a row, Jamie Bergeron and the Kickin’
Cajuns take the
stage at 9:30 p.m.