The 13th annual Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo kicks off next Friday, May 18 and incorporates a ton of new elements. This year’s festival will include new vegan and gluten-free cuisine, all-female programming, sign-language interpreters, an app and more. 

As previously reported by OffBeat.com, Bayou Boogaloo will this year be charging a gate fee after 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 19 and May 20. However, all attendees who enter after that time on those dates will automatically be entered into a newly added $1,000 cash-back raffle. A free Apple and Android mobile app has also been developed, in an effort to reduce the waste from paper schedules.

Newly added food vendor Z’Kaya will serve gluten-free and vegan offerings such as Crispy Brussel Sprouts with lemongrass gastrique, coconut-ginger crème and sesame seeds; savory thin pancakes with local crawfish, cabbage, miso corn and topped with calamansi aioli, furikake and otafu sauce; and fresh ground pork and gulf shrimp crispy spring rolls with mango Kimchi sauce.
All three stages on all three dates of the festival will incorporate sign-language interpreters, as well.

For more information on what to expect at this year’s Bayou Boogaloo, click here. Don’t forget to pick up a copy of the brand new May issue of OffBeat, which has Cha Wa on the cover and Tony Hall in Backtalk, both of whom will be performing!