Crowley Guys Showcase Louisiana’s Wayne Toups, Rice Festival on National TV

Crowley, LA (KPEL News) - Crowley's International Rice Festival showed up at Good Morning America, Fox News, and The Today Show in New York City, thanks to a group of south Louisiana fans.

Fans often show up to watch the ABC, Fox, and NBC live, and it's tradition to do so with signs hawking their hometowns. With festival season in full swing in south Louisiana, it's not surprising that local folks would put our celebrations on display.

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The Today Show's website invites fans to join them in each weekday morning and suggests they get there between 6:15 and 6:30:

Are you ready to experience the excitement of the TODAY broadcast LIVE in Rockefeller Center? Get your posters ready, and join us bright & early on the TODAY Plaza!

Tickets are required to be a part of the studio audience for Good Morning America. The website TripSavvy.com offers some tips to to fans who want to be part of the popular live show:

• The show airs Monday–Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. (in all time zones) from its Times Square studio at the corner of West 44th Street and Broadway.
• The audience gathers on the corner at 7 a.m.
• The audience takes part in outdoor segments and gets a front-row view of the weathercasts and other segments with the hosts.
• The recommended age for audience members is a minimum of 16 years old.
• Some people may be selected to go to the standing room area inside the studio. The studio can accommodate approximately 100 audience members.

Crowley natives Josh Borill and Dr. Dale Leleux, along with their significant others, put Crowley's Rice Festival on full display with glitter-edged posters. They snapped pictures at the ABC studio and held their homemade signs above the heads of the crowd during The Today Show for all to see.

The International Rice Festival and attendees fill the streets of downtown Crowley the third full weekend of October. In 2023, Louisiana's oldest agricultural festival kicks of on Oct 19 and continues through October 21. Wayne Toups is a popular entertainer at his hometown festival, and visitors don their dancing shoes for some jitterbugging and two-stepping.

Cajun accordionist and crooner Wayne Toups shared the photo of the two friends on his Facebook  page, answering the question posed by the sign "When Wayne Toups plays?"

Other Louisiana favorites are slated to play on the two stages at the festival. The Supreme Rice Sound Stage is located on the Acadia Parish Court Circle, and the Cajun Country Rice Stage is set up at the intersection of 4th Street and Parkerson Avenue in downtown Crowley.