NEW ORLEANS — The ever-expanding Oak Street Po-Boy Festival returns for its 15th year Sunday, promising live music, an art market, and more than 40 vendors, all putting their own spin on the New Orleans classic.
“I’m excited to see people out here having a good time, because that’s why we do this,” said Festival Director Kari Shisler. She told WWL-TV there will be a few changes this year, including two new vendors – Mister Mao and Moe’s Original BBQ.
Like last year, vendors will also put their best offerings in front of a panel of judges. “It’s like the beginning of a football game,” said “Face of the Fest” Leroy Mitchell, “It’s 0-0, everybody’s spirits are all up and at the end of the day somebody’s gonna be a winner.” Previous categories included Best Shrimp Po-boy, Best Vegan Poboy, and the coveted Best of Fest.
Last year, that top prize went to the grilled pork po-boy from Mukbang Seafood on Oak Street. Owner Kim Nguyen says the honor was a complete surprise. “It was pretty exciting,” she said, “Actually someone came to us and said congratulations, we said ‘for what?’’
This year, Mukbang is entering a slightly different pork po-boy, as well as their lemongrass chicken po-boy. The restaurant staff has also done a lot more prep work, like pouring sauces, marinating meats, and preparing seafood, after “not expecting the amount of traffic that came through” last year and having to scramble to keep up. “This year we’re kind of amped up,” said Nguyen.
That crowd could be even bigger this year. Shisler is expecting as many as 50,000 people. To help spread them out, one of the live music stages will be further down Oak Street this year. “We really want to encourage people to go all the way down, there’s some fabulous food from Carrollton all the way down to the end of the block,” she said.
Parking will, as usual, be difficult to find around the festival. There are no lots and only street parking in the surrounding neighborhood. Shisler encourages people to use public transportation like the St. Charles streetcar, which passes directly in front of the festival entrance, or rideshares. There will also be a “bike valet” at the corner of Carrollton Avenue and Zimple Street run by local nonprofit Bike Easy.
A portion of the festival’s proceeds go to Son of a Saint, a local organization that provides mentorship to young boys without fathers.
This will also mark one year since the return of Hubig’s pies. Last year, the company set up a surprise tent during the festival and sold 10,000 pies, their first since the original factory burned down in 2012.