The Iowa Rabbit Festival was founded back in 1985 by a group of local rabbit breeders. They built a large processing facility, and were trying to promote our local rabbit industry, so they decided to start a small festival in the Iowa City Park. They did not know how big this little festival would become…They started with a small rabbit show, a parade, they had booths set up to sell items like crafts, t-shirts, kids toys, etc. They hired a band, put them on a trailer, and that was about it. Every year though, the festival would get a little bigger...

Well, years have past, the local rabbit breeders that started this festival have closed down, so the board of directors that remained had to make a decision, with no local rabbit breeders left, no original board members remaining, what do we focus on now? If we are going keep having the Rabbit Festival, what can we do with the money we raise?

Well, that decision was easy, let’s keep our original focus on Rabbit’s, but let’s donate the proceeds back to our local youth. With 4-H and FFA as strong as ever, we can raise money for the schools, needy familys, etc. This plan has worked extremely well. Twenty-four years later, we have one of the top 20 festivals in the Southeastern United States, attracting over 20,000 people each year! Not bad for a 3-day event!

The State Rabbit Show is now held annually during the Iowa Rabbit Festival and has over 400 Rabbits competing! Every kind of Rabbit known to man is there, so it’s a great opportunity for the kids to see all the different breeds that are available to show.

Back to the festival. We now have 13 bands that perform, over 50 booths set-up that sell crafts, shirts, rabbits, art, Lot’s of Great Food, a Huge Carnival. Our parade is free to enter and has over 75 entries each year!!

We also have the Pete` Lapin pageant for the young kings and queens to compete, and the Miss Bunny Pageant. Our Miss Bunny competes in the Queen of Queens Pageant held annually during the LAFF convention. (Louisiana association of fairs and festivals) She also travels to different festivals throughout her reign representing our festival. (That’s the fun part of being queen)

Our Festival is held every third weekend in March at the Lawrence Toupes memorial park in Iowa, Louisiana. We are not for profit so 100% of our net proceeds are donated back to our community. We donate to almost every school club, the Boy Scouts, FFA, we buy glasses for children in need, we give scholarships, and there are over 40 different organizations that receive donations. All we ask are they donate their time helping put the festival on. That about does it…so... “Hop on over to the Iowa Rabbit Festival where I guarantee you will have a Hare raising good time!”