Iowa Chicken Run: Authentic Cajun Mardi Gras Tradition in Louisiana
I can smell the barbecue pork already smoking on the pit as we gather at KC Hall, 503 E. Highway 90, in Iowa, Louisiana, around 9 a.m. to pay for our parade entry.
Smoked meats like sausage and tasso are popular in Cajun Country.
Everyone mills about in their Courir de Mardi Gras costumes made of rags, chatting as final preparations are made to decorate the trailers.
Cory Cart and Lysa Allman-Baldwin enjoy the festivities atop bales of hay in the back of a trailer on the parade route.
We’re in the small town of Iowa, Louisiana, for the Iowa Chicken Run on Mardi Gras Day. The parade rolls at 10 a.m.
Throughout the community, trucks, trailers, ATVs, and horseback riders stop to beg for ingredients to make a communal gumbo. This ancient tradition involves revelers going house to house, dancing to live Zydeco music, in hopes that homeowners will donate ingredients for the evening’s gumbo.
The parade stops at a community member’s home while Zydeco music plays and everyone dances. If the family approves the dancing, they donate gumbo ingredients.
Right as the captain stops at a home and blows his whistle, he tosses a chicken into the air, and the children chase it amid whoops, hollers, and dancing. Catching the chicken is a great honor.
Children chase chickens in Iowa, La.
It’s a true family affair. Rodney Victorian, Berline, and Kimmy Bellard welcome us warmly. No pomp or sequined costumes here—this is authentic Cajun Country Mardi Gras, filled with laughter, festivity, and adrenaline-pumping music.
Berline Bellard encourages the cook stirring the gumbo pot.
What I love most about the Iowa Chicken Run is how it transcends age, race, and socioeconomic lines. No king or queen—just pure community spirit and living life to the fullest.
*Note: Chickens are not used in the gumbo. This tradition harks back to the ancient French medieval Courir de Mardi Gras, where the chicken was the final, prized ingredient.
For more information on the Iowa Chicken Run, click here.
