By now our readers know the drill, so this announcement comes as no surprise to you. Our annual Hayride dinner in Metairie will return to its normal August date this year after having to be moved to December thanks to the unkind ministrations of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ COVID restrictions last year. August 23 is the date, which is a Tuesday, and it’ll be held at Metairie Country Club as it’s always been.

Melissa Mackenzie, the publisher of The American Spectator, is tentatively set as one of our speakers. Melissa was booked as the headliner of our Baton Rouge event this year but we had to reschedule her due to a medical issue in her family. If it’s possible, she’ll switch to the Metairie event (we’ll keep you posted on that). Also booked is Public Service Commissioner and dear friend of The Hayride Eric Skrmetta.

We’re going to have at least one and potentially two members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation on hand to speak as well. House ethics rules don’t allow us to advertise their appearances in advance if it’s a for-profit event, but you can probably guess as to who we’re talking about as we make announcements about the August 23 event.

The format will be our tried-and-true one: we’ll have a cocktail hour starting at 6 p.m. and dinner and the program will begin at 7, subject to getting everyone in their seats in a timely manner, and we’ll have everyone on their way by 8:30 or 9:00.

Somewhat different this year is that copies of Hayride publisher Scott McKay’s new book The Revivalist Manifesto, signed by the author, will be available. You’re welcome to bring your copy for signing as well; in fact, if you’d like to pre-order your copy (the book will ship on July 4), you can do that here.

And yes, you can order your tickets now. Here’s a link to do that. Tickets are $80 apiece, with a max order of four.

Also, your organization is welcome to be a table sponsorship for the event. In fact, we have two options to do that. Our front-row tables will contain 12 seats, and that premium table sponsorship is available for $2000, while our traditional 10-seat tables are available for $1500. For more information on table sponsorships, feel free to contact Hailey Austin at this email address.

As our readers are aware, this is only the first of several reminders you’ll see here about the event. But we’ve had several people ask us about when the next Hayride dinner is, particularly thanks to the success of our Baton Rouge event in May, and we wanted to give everyone early warning.

So we’ll see you on August 23 in Metairie. It’ll be a great show!