PONCHATOULA, La. — The 50th Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival continued Sunday morning as planned, after being shut down early Saturday night due to a shooting. This year brought record-breaking crowds according to the festival’s Public Relations Director, Donald Lanier.
“Record numbers. Everything is so crazy. We have booths running out of food, we have ATMs running out of cash,” Lanier said.
The highest estimated attendance in history was around 500,000, according to Lanier. He doesn’t know exactly how many people attended this year yet since it was a free festival, but based on booth sale numbers, ticket counts, and trash pick-up, he will have a better idea soon.
“It’s been one of the best festivals ever. We’ve had a tremendous crowd,” said Ponchatoula Police Chief Bry Layrisson.
He considers the weekend a success despite a shooting Saturday night that shut down the festival about an hour early.
“It was at least two shooters shooting, exchanging gunfire at each other. We collected over a dozen shell casings at the scene,” Chief Layrisson said.
It happened around 9:30 at 200 Hickory St. near the Ponchatoula Police Dept. That’s about a block from the festival grounds.
“The actual police department was hit twice and one of the citizen’s vehicles that were attending the festival, but there were no injuries and we thank God no one was hurt,” Chief Layrisson said.
He said detectives believe the shooters were attending the festival.
“It may be gang-related, we have some gang problems on the Northshore,” he said.
It didn't stop crowds from packing in Sunday. At points, police had to shut down exits into Ponchatoula to avoid backup on I-55.
“We’re a city of 7,500 people trying to cram in 300,000,” Chief Layrisson said.
Those who attended Sunday said they were happy to be there.
“Came today and I’m enjoying myself. Everything is beautiful, everybody is getting along like family and friends,” Leasure Bernard said.
“Good fresh strawberries and the entertainment is wonderful,” Merina Nelson said. “The moonshine was my favorite drink.”
Organizers said the festival is the biggest moneymaker for the town’s small businesses and non-profits. Partly crediting the nice weather, they got the boost they needed following two years without the festival.
“We’re blessed, we’re blessed,” Lanier said.
No arrests have been made in Saturday’s shooting, but the chief said they have persons of interest and he was confident they would be arrested soon.