The Louisiana Railroad Days Festival prides itself on being a free festival that is family oriented and allows no alcohol.

“The thing about this festival is that it has always been a very family friendly, free event,” Festival Chairman Tonya Thibodeaux said. “And when I say free I mean all the parking is free, all the entertainment is free, there’s no admission fee. There’s also no alcohol allowed on the premises and there’s no alcohol sold on the premises. It is a very family friendly atmosphere.”

The DeQuincy Federated Service League, of which Thibodeaux’s mother is a founding member, hosts the festival each year.

“It originally started out as something called the ‘Angry Women’s League’ and they thought, ‘Maybe we should change that,’ ” Thibodeaux said with a chuckle. “Now those women are all in their 80s and are still participating. It started out as Cub Scout moms and Girl Scouts moms trying to make some extra money for their scouts group by hosting a country fair. That fair kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.”

Thibodeaux said it wasn’t long before then-DeQuincy Mayor Gary Cooper — who was “very forward-thinking, altruistic and wanted to bring people to DeQuincy” — approached the Federated Service League about expanding the festival.

“That was when the Louisiana Railroad Days Festival was born and now, we’re in our 42nd year,” Thibodeaux said proudly.

The festival is held every spring on the second weekend of April.

Though Thibodeaux said their group is approached every year about adding beer to the concession offerings, they’re not budging.

“Our group of 50 women have been told each year, many, many times that if we would just sell alcohol we could make thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars,” she said. “We’re just not doing it. It’s just not happening.”

Thibodeaux said the ladies of the DeQuincy Federated Service League will operate the Coca-Cola booth during the festival and all the proceeds will be given to area community projects.

“Everything that we do comes back into the community — whether it is for scholarships, for sponsoring ball teams, for donating to the championship cheerleading squad that’s going to Florida,” she said. “Everything goes back to the community so we are 100 percent nonprofit and all volunteers.”

The festival will kick off at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 10, with opening ceremonies and the annual pageant.

“Friday is a big deal so the DeQuincy schools are out a half-day,” she said. “Everyone puts on their best attire and comes out to the parade. There’s no admission fee, you can just show up and be in the parade.”

The festival opens at 1 p.m. Friday and the parade begins at 3 p.m. Friday is also Gospel Night.

“We have nationally known and local talent so we have people come in from all over the surrounding areas because that really is special to this festival,” Thibodeaux said. “It really gives everyone an opportunity to come and enjoy and celebrate. Not everybody is comfortable with Gospel music so there’s something for them on Saturday and not everyone is comfortable with the music on Saturday so they can come on Friday and still have a good time.”

This year’s Gospel performers include The Ladies Trio, Jimmy Henagan, Kayli Williams, Brittany Williams, Ashton Smith, CrossPoint Community Church Kids, The Grace Ensemble and Calvary Apostolic Church of Starks.

There will also be a scavenger hunt for middle school-aged students 4:30-6 p.m. Friday with crash prizes awarded the winners.

Brad Broussard & Chute 13, Joe Harmon & The Harmonics, 26 West and Wayne Toups will perform on Saturday.

Also at the festival, there will be carnival rides, vendor booths and a model train show.

“DeQuincy is founded on our railroad,” Thibodeaux said. “Where the Railroad Museum is, that was our hub. For some who will attend the festival, we’re having what we call the ‘Old Timer’s Reunion.’ We still have a lot of people in DeQuincy that work for the railroad. Their livelihood comes from that so we have something really special set aside for them during the day. It’s like a homecoming from them.”

Thibodeaux said discounted tickets for the carnival rides are on sale now and will be through Wednesday, April 9.

“We have a little caboose that is set on the grounds of the museum,” she said. “It’s literally a caboose. They are on sale now and you can buy the tickets there. We don’t do bracelets for the rides. I’d really like to encourage you to buy them now because we are selling them ahead of time for $1 and they’ll be twice that at the festival.”

She said for families who don’t want to participate in carnival rides, they can play in the park, listen to the music and enjoy tasty food.

“There’s people coming from all over preparing the food,” she said. “The food is going to be delicious.”