Every May, Lake Charles honors a legendary pirate Jean Lafitte. Lousiana Pirate Festival is a unique free event with an array of activities, both on land and in the sea. The festival, featuring live music and high-quality entertainment, takes place at Lake Charles Civic Center, on the shores of historic Lake Charles, over ten days. Being one of the largest events in Louisiana, the festival attracts 200,000 attendees.
Louisiana Pirate Festival, also known as Contraband Days, offers carnival rides, contests, daily Pirate Parades, premier entertainment for people of all ages, and mouthwatering Louisiana cuisine in the Galley Alley. The highlights of the festival include the pirate ship attack and cannon fire at the seawall of the Lake Charles Civic Center. Pirates raise a "Jolly Roger" and make the local mayor walk the plank into the lake.
Other events of the multiday pageantry include fireworks shows, beach games, and fun competitions like bed races, bathtub races, and crawfish races. Louisiana Pirate Festival has been commemorating pirate Jean Lafitte and his gang since 1957. According to local legends, Lafitte and his buccaneers even buried their treasure in the city's vicinity.
