Creole Tomato Fest 2026

Storyboard
Written By Ellis Anderson
 June 2026

From the opening second line parade to the last dances in the French Market, this year’s 40th anniversary celebration fest the biggest and the best. And definitely the tastiest!

- photos by Ellis Anderson

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This feature is underwritten in part by the Mardi Gras Museum of Costumes & Culture

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Ellis Anderson

Ellis Anderson first came to the French Quarter in 1978 as a young musician and writer.  Eventually, she also became a silversmith and represented local artists as owner of Quarter Moon Gallery, with locations in the Quarter and Bay St. Louis, on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  

Her book about the Bay's Katrina experience, Under Surge, Under Siege, was published by University Press of Mississippi and won several awards, including the Eudora Welty Book Prize in 2010 and the Mississippi Library Association's Nonfiction Author's Award for 2011.  Under Surge, Under Siege was also short-listed as nonfiction finalist for the 2012 William Saroyan International Book Prize, Stanford University Libraries.

 In 2011, Anderson founded her first digital publication, the Shoofly Magazine and served as publisher from 2011 - 2022.  She established French Quarter Journal in 2019, where she currently serves as publisher and managing editor.

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