St. Joseph’s Catholic Church is hosting its 19th annual Tailgate Cookoff Saturday, Oct. 21 at Loreauville Park from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Teams will start serving food at 11 a.m. Admission is free, but attendees must acquire tickets to get food and drinks. Similar to the Gumbo Cookoff a week prior, attendees will get a chance to try a variety of sample-sized foods. According to Chairman Claire Richard, this gives people an opportunity to try many new things as opposed to one big meal.

“So, I don’t have to spend a lot of money on one item, I can spend $20 and try three or four different things to see what I like and go back and get more if I chose to,” Richard said.

The competition has six categories: meat, poultry, seafood, wild game, people’s choice and grand champion. Every attendee who purchases tickets will receive a voting ticket for the People’s Choice Award.

Throughout the event, hidden judges will prowl the grounds trying each of the dishes on offer. Afterwards, they will judge them in their appropriate categories and whoever scores the best overall wins the Grand Champion Award.

The Tailgating Cookoff usually sees 12 to 15 teams, but this year they have 19 teams cooking 26 different dishes. They plan on preparing a massive variety of tailgate-adjacent foods including kebabs, jambalaya, street tacos and even some soups.

“You have anything that would really please anybody’s palette,” Richard said.

Previously, the competition hosted arts and crafts vendors, but the addition of new teams limited the amount of available space. Richard said she’d rather get more competitors in to offer more options, attract more families and ultimately increase engagement.

“We had to remove arts and crafts until I could figure out a better way to incorporate them. I don’t want them to feel left out if I have to move them away from the main event area,” Richard said.

The event also features a Cornhole Championship. Registration for the championship starts at 9 a.m. and the tournament starts at 10 a.m. Both kids and adults can participate in their own separate divisions. Registration for an adult team is $40 and $20 for a youth team.

Two bands will perform live music from 1 to 3 p.m. with Cajun Roots and Sideshow will play from 5 to 9 p.m. The Church will lead a Catholic mass at 4 p.m.

There will also be a silent and live auction featuring handmade items like arts and crafts and large items like a Blackstone grill, picnic tables, and other interesting goodies. Last year, they had over 120 items donated for the auction, and Richard hopes they match that amount this year.

All proceeds benefit the building and maintenance funds for the church. According to Richard, this is one of St. Joseph’s only fundraising events, besides basket collection.

“It’s really our only big fundraiser that we have just to keep everything running well and getting everything repaired like it should,” Richard concluded.