Welcome to SHREVEPORT

Shreveport is the third-largest city and the principal city of the third largest metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Louisiana, as well as being the 99th-largest city in the United States.

It is the seat of Caddo Parish and extends slightly into neighboring Bossier Parish. Bossier City is separated from Shreveport by the Red River. The population was 200,145 at the 2000 census, and the Shreveport-Bossier City Metropolitan Area population exceeds 375,000.

Shreveport was founded in 1836 by the Shreve Town Company, a corporation established to develop a town at the juncture of the newly navigable Red River and the Texas Trail, an overland route into the newly independent Republic of Texas and, prior to that time, into Mexico.

Shreveport is the commercial and cultural center of the Ark-La-Tex, the area where Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas meet. Many people in the community refer to the two cities of Shreveport and Bossier City as "Shreveport-Bossier".

Red River Revel

The Red River Revel is a festival of food, culture, art and music that takes place in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, annually in the month of October. The Revel began in 1976 as a bicentennial celebration, sponsored by The Junior League of Shreveport. It is a nonprofit festival, and any money garnered from commerce that takes place there goes back into the financial pool for the next year's Revel, guaranteeing a bigger and better Revel every year.

In several of the years of the festival, mosaics have been produced on the festival grounds which lasted after it was over. An artist creates a design that includes the Revel logo, and attendees work to put colored tile pieces in place to match the design. While some of the mosaics of past years have been removed or blocked from sight due to subsequent construction, others remain visible, including on the base of the Texas Street Bridge.

Holiday Trail of Lights

The Holiday Trail of Lights is a festival held in Northwest Louisiana and Northeast Texas during the Christmas season.

Six Ark-La-Tex cities participate in the Trail, three in Louisiana (Natchitoches (pronounced NAK-uh-tush), Shreveport and Bossier City) and three in East Texas (Marshall, Jefferson and Kilgore).

The Wonderland of Lights in Marshall is one of the largest Christmas celebrations in the US and attracts tourists both from the US and other countries. The Festival of Lights and Christmas Festival in Natchitoches was started in 1927, making it one of the oldest Light Festivals in the US. The largest city, Shreveport's festival, Holiday in Dixie, lights up a botanical garden, the American Rose Center. Candle light tours of historic homes are popular attractions in all of the cities, especially Jefferson. Kilgore suspends Christmas lights from oil derricks in the World's Richest Acre District.

All of the cities are within a one hour drive of each other and hold parades during the festival and offer what the official website calls "Southern hospitality".

In Natchitoches, Louisiana it is known as the Natchitoches Christmas Festival or Festival of lights.

The Gardens of the American Rose Center

The Gardens of the American Rose Center (42 acres) are botanical gardens dedicated to rose varieties, as well as the home of the American Rose Society (founded 1892). The gardens are located on Jefferson Paige Road, at Exit 5 of Interstate I-20, just west of Shreveport, Louisiana, and are open daily March 30th through October 31st. An admission fee is charged.

The gardens include some 20,000 rose varieties, arranged in gardens such as ones featuring the newest rose hybrids, All-America Rose Selections, miniature roses, single petaled roses, etc. Taken together, the gardens are described as the largest park in the United States dedicated to roses.