The 14th-annual Oak Street Po-Boy Fest will return to Oak Street in the Carrollton neighborhood of New Orleans on Sunday, November 6. This year’s festival will host more than 40 food and beverage vendors, four stages of music, an arts market and a kid’s zone. 

The 2022 festival, sponsored by the association of The Oak Street Merchants, Residents, and Property Owners, will once again highlight the history of New Orleans’ iconic po-boy sandwich with special programming and events. Returning after a two-year absence due to the pandemic, the goal of the festival this year is to maintain its status as one of the most unique and exciting events of the year. Each fall since 2007, upwards of 50,000 people have come to eat, drink, dance, and shop the historic and vibrant Oak Street. 

“Each festival is like a fingerprint of its community,” said Leroy Mitchell, the Saints superfan known as “Whistle Monsta,” a representative of the festival at a press announcement on June 22. “The art, the food, the music are all big parts of it. That’s what New Orleans neighborhoods are, and after not being able to be together in the pandemic, it feels good to know we can do this again.”

Past Po-Boy Festivals have offered live music by such acts as shows by the Stooges Brass Band, Los Po-Boy-Citos, Mia Borders, Rebirth Brass Band, and Khris Royal and Dark Matter. But po-boys are the real draw, with vendors providing a host of conventional and offbeat versions all in one place. Vendors also compete for a “best of the fest” award. Some of those past favorites among the list of award-winning po-boys include GW Fins’ lobster po-boy, Parkway Bakery’s James Brown po-boy and the Nurnberger sausage from Bratz Y’all.

A portion of the proceeds from the festival benefits Son of a Saint, a nonprofit that enhances the lives of fatherless boys through mentorship, emotional support, development of life skills exposure to constructive experiences, and the formation of positive, lasting peer-to-peer relationships.

The 2022 event will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit here.