Explore Baton Rouge: Things to Do at Rural Life Museum

Events

2026 Theme Banner

The LSU Rural Life Museum is proud to present its 2026 theme, Community: The Fabric of our Nation.
"Building Community, Building Louisiana: The People of the Rural Life Museum."

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation, we honor the everyday people who built Louisiana by highlighting the communities represented at the LSU Rural Life Museum. Through families' historical accounts and objects in the collection, this year's exhibit will focus on the people who called the museum's historic structures home.

Programming will include performances, author talks, exhibitions, and hands-on demonstrations. The exhibition will be on display from February through October 2026.

Vintage Dancers  

2026 Harvest Days

Saturday, October 3rd & Sunday, October 4th

9:00am- 4:30pm 

Step back into the 19th century during Harvest Days, one of the LSU Rural Life Museum’s beloved annual events. 
 
Spend the weekend exploring the museum’s historic village as skilled artisans, musicians, and living history interpreters bring the past to life through hands-on demonstrations and engaging performances. Watch traditional trades in action, including blacksmithing, open-hearth cooking, woodworking, spinning, soap making, quill pen writing, and other crafts that sustained rural Louisiana for generations. 
 
Stroll the grounds while enjoying live folk music and dancing, challenge friends and family to historic games, and experience everyday life as it was once lived. Take a tractor ride through the museum grounds, browse artisan demonstrations, and savor delicious food available throughout the weekend. Don’t forget to sample the homemade cracklins, cane syrup, and kettle corn made on-site. 

Ticket Prices

Ages 0-3    Free

Ages 4-11   $10

Ages 12+    $12

Purchase Tickets Here

Red Rooster Bash 

Sponsored by the Friends of the LSU Rural Life Museum 

Thursday, October 15th

6:00-9:00pm

The rooster's crowing, the still's tapped, and it's time to Raise the Roost! Join us at the LSU Rural Life 
Museum’s Red Rooster Bash when the museum comes alive after dark for home-brewed craft beer tastings, cocktails, live music, line dancing, and Southern food good enough to cheat on your diet for. What 
started as an old-fashioned barn-raising fundraiser still does exactly what it always did: bring people 
together to build community and make memories. Pull on your boots and come raise a glass for 
Louisiana's rural history!

Purchase Tickets Here

                Red Rooster 2026   

Pumpkin               

Haints, Haunts, & Halloween

Sunday, October 25th

2:00-4:30pm 

Celebrate Halloween the old-fashioned way at the LSU Rural Life Museum! Gather the family and experience the charm of a historic country fair. Stroll through the museum grounds and enjoy storytelling, cake walks, traditional games, and plenty of trick-or treating. Dress up and get decked out in your favorite Halloween costume! Whether your little one is a pirate, princess, superhero, or friendly ghost, costumes are encouraged for kids and grown-ups alike.   

Ticket Prices

Ages 0-3   Free

Ages 4-11  $6  

Ages 12+   $12 

Purchase Tickets Here

Blacksmithing Demonstration Days 

Presented by the Gulf Coast Blacksmith Association 

Watch talented and introductory blacksmiths demonstrate forging techniques inside our historic blacksmith shop and on a portable forge, see unique creations up close, and discover the history and artistry behind this centuries-old craft. 

9am-4pm

Saturday, September 26th

Included with general museum admission, free for museum members.

 Blacksmithing

Fall Speaker Series


Raymond Berthelot

Monday, October 19th 12pm-1pm

Pack your lunch and join us for a lunch & learn with Raymond Berthelot as he explores the enduring influence of Spanish history and culture on the state of Louisiana. Berthelot will examine how Spanish traditions are reflected in our state’s food, music, architecture, place names, and most importantly, its people. Discover how Spanish heritage has become woven into Louisiana’s unique identity and how families and communities have preserved these traditions across generations, weaving Louisiana’s rich past into the fabric of everyday life. 
Raymond Berthelot is the Parks Administrator for the Louisiana Office of State Parks.  He previously served as the District Manager over the Parks Historic Sites system, and as the Chief of Interpretative Services.  He has taught Louisiana History at Baton Rouge Community College, as an adjunct faculty member for several years.  Mr. Berthelot is an accomplished poet, with multiple chapbooks and individual works in print. 

Sharon Louque 

Monday, November 16th 12:00-1:00pm

Pack your lunch and join us for a lunch & learn with Sharon Louque, a longtime docent for the LSU Rural Life Museum.

Sharon is a retired school nurse who now spends her time sharing her passion for history; specifically River Road Plantation history. She is apart of the fourth and last Keller generation to have known, loved, and spent time in the Welham Plantation house. Welham was bought by her great grandfather, Leonce Keller, and Poche in 1904. Her grandfather, Milton, and her dad, Ray, were both born and raised in the house. Sharon remembers many happy times spent there for holidays, summers, and Sunday afternoons with her grandparents and forty one cousins. Many of Welham Plantation's outbuildings are now historic structures here at the museum.

She currently resides in St. James Parish, where she works part time at Felicity Plantation and the St. James Parish Tourist Welcome Center. She also enjoys spending time with her three children and eight grandchildren.