BATON ROUGE — Hundreds of people gathered to celebrate Louisiana culture in downtown Baton Rouge on Friday at the Red Beans and Rice Heritage Music Festival.

Guests enjoyed live music, food vendors and many fun activities. 

"My wife wanted to do something positive for the downtown area, and not only for the downtown area, but the whole state of Louisiana. So we came up with the Louisiana Red Beans and Rice Festival," Co-founder Damon Stewart said.

The free event picks back up Saturday at 10 a.m.