Gueydan, LA

Gueydan is a Vermilion Parish town in the Abbeville micropolitan area, with a 2020 population estimate of 1,328. Louisiana Highway 14 runs through the town, while the Mermentau River, White Lake, and Grand Lake connect the surrounding rice country to a major waterfowl landscape. The same flat fields that support rice farming also sit beside wetlands used by hunters, and Gueydan has built its public character around that overlap.

In 1977, a local women's club registered the title “Gueydan, Louisiana—Duck Capital of America,” and the Jaycees helped organize the first Gueydan Duck Festival later that year. The festival began on blocked-off streets, moved to its own seven-acre grounds in 1980, and expanded again in 1996. Duck and goose calling contests, decoy carving, dog trials, cooking contests, a parade, and live music turn the hunting heritage of Acadiana into a full town weekend. Gueydan is a Louisiana town where rice, wetlands, and duck culture meet in one of the state's most distinctive annual celebrations.