1. Everyone In Shreveport Knows Life Is Better On The Water
A morning away, an afternoon with friends, or a daring adventure – whatever the day calls for, Shreveporters know that life is always better on the water. And working all week on the land is just what they do to get there.
Fishing is a notably popular pastime in the city. Just about everyone has a tacklebox and a rod propped up in their garages. A few even have a few trophies from the Bassmaster Classic on the Red River. But the people also love testing the limits by taking adventures over the alligator ponds.
And when that grows old, the cruises that run along the Boom or Bust Byway is the perfect way to mellow them back down. No matter the sport, they’re happy as long as it’s on the water.
2. Folks In Shreveport Are Serious Fancy Food Fanatics
The folks in Shreveport are always looking for the newest and best places to eat with modern fare. Luckily for them, there are no shortage of places to go and fun cuisine to find. They have everything from Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian and more. And when it comes to sweets, don’t even get them started.
But it’s the specialty fare that keeps the people in Shreveport spinning. And with a box of yolonuts in one hand and a Muffy from Fertitta’s in the other, how could they be anything but? And what is probably the most Shreveport food of all, they love their Geauxsicles–a perfect blend of their Cajun roots, Mardi Gras love, and deliciousness.
3. But They’ll Never Give Up That Traditional Louisiana Cuisine
Sure, Shreveporters have their own thing going on. But Louisiana taste buds can never be trumped. And you’ll see that in all the cooking pots across the city boiling over with Cajun-Creole staples like crawfish, étouffée, po-boys, jambalaya, gumbo, boudin… You get the idea.
They like it so much, they even celebrate it with the annual Mudbug Festival. This weekend-long party of crawfish happens every Memorial Day and brings everyone from the city together for Cajun fun—including watching their neighbors compete in the very messy crawfish eating challenge.
4. People In Shreveport Know More About Pop Culture Than You Ever Will
These days, it seems like everyone is a Netflix junkie. But the people in Shreveport know more about what’s streaming than an IMDB database. That’s because more than 100 movies and television series have filmed here in the city just in the past decade alone. Ask a local about the scenes from “True Blood,” “The Great Debaters,” “The Guardian,” “The Mist,” “W.,” “Olympus Has Fallen”…getting the picture?
The people are proud because they know that Hollywood is finally seeing what they’ve always seen in Shreveport – a picturesque city full of endless fields of flowers and rolling hills amidst the urban city streets, which is one of their favorite things about living here, too.
5. Everyone In Shreveport Knows When To Hold ‘Em And When To Fold ‘Em
Speaking of water, another fun time the people in Shreveport look forward to is hitting the floating casinos. The Shreveport-Bossier area is home to six riverfront casinos.
No one in Shreveport is a stranger to the slots or adding up to 21. The Shreveport-side casinos include Eldorado Resort Casino and Sam’s Town Hotel and Casino. And the locals here are fine with crossing over onto the Bossier side for a night of fun, including gambling, entertainment, spas, dance clubs and music events.
And that’s really saying something, since they don’t just go into Bossier for no reason. But bachelor parties? Celebrating a new job? Looking to add a little excitement to date night? Shreveporters don’t hesitate to take it to the casinos.
6. Shreveport Folks Are Three Parts Southern, One Part Awesome
Shreveport might be located in Louisiana, but it also falls inside the Ark-La-Tex tri-state region, that’s Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. It is unofficially designated as its own area with its own culture, influenced by all three states in some way, earning it the nicknames Arklatex and Arklatexoma to the locals. That’s a mouthful.
But the people in Shreveport tend to relate much more to the Texas side than they do the Louisiana side of their own state. That’s not knocking Louisiana, of course. They love their state.
But, located just two hours outside of Dallas, the people in Shreveport have a different lifestyle than those who live down in the bayou. They’re a booming commercial and cultural center, influenced by three states, making up one awesome hybrid of a city.
7. No One In Shreveport Needs Any NOLA Mardi Gras
If you think New Orleans is the only city in Louisiana that knows how to party, you’ve clearly never partied with the people in Shreveport. The entire Ark-La-Tex region explodes with festivities every Mardi Gras season and Shreveporters are in the life of the party.
Spanning over two weekends, locals make their way through seven different parades with grandiose displays of pageantry and fun, complete with beads, proud-to-be-gaudy parade floats, and people screaming for some Moon Pies. And yes, in the end, it really is just an elaborate scheme everyone in town has concocted in order to get all the Moon Pies and to prove to NOLA that they can party harder than just about anyone.
8. Bossier Is Not The Boss Of Shreveport
What would a hyphenated city union be without a good rivalry? Shreveport-Bossier might have a lot of things in common on paper between their joint marketing and tourism departments, but in person each likes to believe that they couldn’t be any different from each other.
The Red River separates the two cities that like to bat smack talk back and forth. Each side thinks they’ve got it better than the other and can name a dozen trivial reasons off of the top of their heads to prove why. And while the Shreveport-Bossier metro slogan is “Louisiana’s Other Side,” Shreveporters know that they land on the better side.
9. Everyone In Shreveport Is A Bunch Of IT Nerds And Gamers
Outsiders might think the Old South can’t hold their own in the modern world, but no one knows that’s just a bunch of Yankee smack talk like the people in Shreveport.
The city is a burgeoning mecca for tech startups and if the people here didn’t come to Shreveport specifically for that reason, they want to be a part of it. They fall along the Technology & North Louisiana Innovation Corridor, where tech jobs are abundant and everyone who attended Louisiana Tech University is vying for a spot.
The CoHabitat Foundation works hard to bring innovative technology to the city, including gamers. In the early 1990s the Shreveport-based company Softdisk developed the technology which led to the creation of the hugely popular games Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.
10. They’re All Shreveporters ‘Til The End
Whether they’re from the Bossier side, or just outsiders who want to join in on kicking the Louisiana town joke can down the road, it doesn’t matter. Shreveporters know what people have to say about them. But they also know that everyone is wrong.
Shreveporters are proud of their Louisiana-strong Ark-La-Tex city. With its city landscape along a country corridor, amazing food, friendly people and endless things to do, they know that Shreveport is the side on which they’re meant to be. And apparently Hollywood agrees, too.
So come see for yourself what it’s all about, whether it’s for Mardi Gras or just to check out the yolonuts. They double dog dare you.
Did we miss anything? Tell us what you think of Shreveport in the comments below! 
