LeAnn Rimes and Frank Foster Play Free as the Washington Parish Fair Runs Through Sunday in Franklinton

Every October, on the third Wednesday of the month, Franklinton turns into the biggest small town in the Florida Parishes. The Washington Parish Fair opened yesterday at 100 Main Street and runs through Sunday, Oct. 25. The headline concerts start tonight.

Plenty of ticketed festivals would be happy to have this lineup. According to the schedule the fair announced in August and reported by The Bogalusa Daily News, Clay Cormier opens tonight's evening shows on the main stage at 7:30, and Frank Foster, one of the state's most popular country acts, follows at 9:30. Friday brings Tyler Kinchen & The Right Pieces at 4 p.m., RJ & Kreole Smoove at 7:30 and the party band The Mixed Nuts at 9:30.

Saturday is the big night. Dustin Dale Gaspard plays at 4 p.m. and Jared Daws at 6, and then LeAnn Rimes takes the stage at 8:30 p.m., according to the fair's main stage schedule. The Grammy winner has sold more than 48 million records, and just about anybody within earshot can sing along to "How Do I Live" whether they mean to or not. Sunday afternoon leans hard into south Louisiana music, with fiddler Amanda Shaw at 12:30, Swampland Revival at 2, Louisiana's LeRoux at 3:30 and the '80s tribute band The Molly Ringwalds closing things out at 5.

One change this year is worth planning around. Stage chairman Chris Bautista told the Daily News that the headliners now start at 9:30 p.m. and that the top act moved from Thursday to Saturday. (The posted schedule has the Thursday and Friday closers at 9:30 and Rimes an hour earlier.) "This hopefully gives people time to enjoy the fair, rodeo and other things at the fair before the big show," he said. "Our festival headliner is now performing on Saturday instead of Thursday night so out-of-town people and working people can come to the show."

There's a lot more to the week than music. The Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals describes the fair as the nation's largest "free fair," with competitive agricultural and educational exhibits, a livestock show and petting zoo, an art show, a rodeo, arts and crafts booths and carnival rides. The fair's map reads like a county-fair checklist: an Agriculture Building, a 4-H Building, a Homemaker's Building, a Flower Building and Fine Arts, plus a Livestock Building, a Rodeo Arena and Old McDonald's Farm for the littlest visitors.

The Mile Branch Settlement is what sets this fair apart from the others. It's the fair's pioneer village, with the parish's rural past on display, and it runs on its own schedule alongside the main stage and the "Down by the Branch" stage. If you've got children or grandparents along, work in a stop there somewhere between the midway and the barns. The fair train, the playground and the Hometown Throwdown are also on the fair's list of attractions, along with a 5K and the Wednesday parade that got everything started.

Don't eat before you go. The food booths on this year's map include a Grand Buffet, a Pine Malt stand, New Orleans-style and Mandeville seafood, Sweet Daddy's BBQ, Kat Daddy's and others, and an FHS booth.

Regulars also get a guessing game. The fair's Mystery Person shows up on the main stage at 6 p.m. tonight and Friday, and the reveal is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Franklinton sits about an hour and a half north of New Orleans and a little more than that east of Baton Rouge, up La. 25 from Covington. In a parish of small towns and pine woods, fair week is the biggest week of the year, and the fair association has already set dates for the next four, starting with Oct. 20 to 24, 2027. If you have questions about this year's fair, you can call the association at 985-295-0911.

If you can only make one trip, Saturday brings the biggest name, while Sunday afternoon may be the better showcase of Louisiana music. You won't need a ticket for either one.

Photo: A food booth at the Washington Parish Fair Grounds during the 2023 Franklinton Christmas Parade. Ktkvtsh, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.