Crawdad Festival

This event did not live up to the hype. After recently spending some time in Louisiana I was excited to introduce my family to some of the things I observed. I admit that I’m not the most enthusiastic fan of fairs (I usually go to the Tehama county fair but not much beyond that) but I was very disappointed. I went with my family and although there was one booth selling crawfish and two stands with music and dancing there wasn’t much to do (we walked around and saw all of the vendors, ordered a plate of crawdads-​$ 20 for a styrofoam container, ate alligator on a stick ($ 8) rode a monster truck ($ 10/​person), let my younger sisters slide down a couple of slides and then left.
The only saving grace was that the crawdads tasted very good and the sisters enjoyed the water slides. Definitely not a good activity if you aren’t bringing children. Parking was also free.

The original one in Isleton is back and better than ever. Elvin Bishop is headlining as it’s now the Cajun & Blues Festival. Award winning Karen Lovely is also on the bill. Terry Hank, Andre Thierry just to name a few. I don’t care for events at fairgrounds… except a county fair lol… Looking forward to the 2013 Cajun & Blues Festival in Isleton California. It used to be The Isleton Crawdad festival. The Isleton Chamber of Commerce started it many years ago and it grew into 50,000−70,000 festival goers before it got mismanaged. The previous Chamber was disbanded. The new Chamber under the leadership of Jean Yakotobi, revived it in 2011, and made it family orientated and now are including blues music and it should be better than ever! Jean Yakotobi owns the 25 Main st Deli and offers the best sandwiches in the delta. Peters Steak House has the best prime Rib. This year the Festival will have fresh home grown California Delta Crawdads. Over a dozen bands Cajun, Zydeco and Blues. I hear parking will be free, at least the festival will not be charging. Small entry fee for adults but children are free again! Make your plans now for June 14 – 15 & 16 2013 Fathers Day weekend. more info here.

It was a perfect experience. We were newbies. First timers. Wind was up a bit today, but the temperature pleasant. Not a large affair. Easy to walk through. Plenty of food venders (most important) and other craft venders as well. Great music. Some attendees were dancing with gusto. Beer available, but we skipped it much to my distress. Well, we cased the joint. Got the lay of the land. Found the crawdad concession. Saw the size of the big order and the small order. We went small for $ 10. But first we went to the corn booth. 2 ears for $ 7. Water $ 1 each. Dipped our corn in a pot of liquid butter looking stuff. Stopped at their condiment table. Salt. Oops too much. Hit the crawdad concession. Got our load and settled at a park bench. Shortly joined by two of the most beautiful blonds. I choked up a little. Tried to get out my best pickup line: Do you come here often? They looked at me and realized immediately that I am suffering from dementia. I got a pass from them and a kick from my wife. At this moment I don’t know why she did that. Before we left I wanted to try the climbing wall. Just for a moment I felt like Tarzan. They took one look at me as I flexed my stomach to make my abs ripple and they said it would take all their safety straps to protect them from me. The warning sign said in part, «reality check.» I got the message and left discouraged. It could have been a really perfect day. She mumbled all the way home.

Rating totally depends — if you have an aching for some good olé tasty crawfish, than this is the place. A small order (which is a heaping pile full) is only $ 5 and a VERY large pot pile is $ 15. There were a few other food items that looked tasty, but went untried — chocolate dipped frozen cheesecake, beignet’s, alligator, etc…
While we were there a band playing some good cajun country music came round and kept us entertained.
Overall, the place was tiny with a few rides, few food stands, and the like. If you live nearby and want to enjoy some decent cajun food, come on by, but I wouldn’t drive too far for this small town small fair.

I went here as a part of a fathers day weekend with my brother and dad. We went fishing right before this so we were up at 5am, already pretty saucy and definitely sun-​burnt and most likely dehydrated. We came here not knowing what to expect and it was pretty frightening from the get go.
Walking along the main downtown road, there were not too many interesting booths, the people there were definitely very drunk, and it was probably at least 100 out. After walking for many blocks, we finally came upon the actual festival and there was an entrance fee (c’mon to the Crawdad Festival? pay like $ 3 to get into a dust bowl??) and $ 20 buckets of crawdads. I’m pretty sure an ATM took my brothers money, and there were these poor Budweiser Clydesdale’s in cages where they could barely turn around with really small fans in 100 degree weather. So sad… To top it all off, right when we decided that this was a bit too much of a redneck party for us, I would say a good dozen or so police cars come driving right through the main festival, sirens blazing, scaring all the kids. We end up finding out, in the parking lot on the way to our car, that someone was shanked and that we were in the middle of some gang war and bounce as fast as possible! Problem: we can’t make it out of Isleton because the cops have all the exits blocked…
It took us 30 minutes of sitting in our car, waiting for the police, with guns drawn, to arrest everyone. Despite all of this, I had to give it at least two stars because I actually learned how to eat crawdads (from this 6yo kid who was really good at shelling em…) and I met this guy who was dressed in full crawdad garb, who was a Weekend Warrior!!!
This was probably not the best festival to attend, ever, but I can honestly look back on this ans smile because it was so memorable!

Yuck! Went about 8 years ago and remember it as being fun, but not this time around. I guess if you are a neo-​nazi harley dude or a norteno gang banger, this may well be your nirvana, but for all else concerned, it pretty much blew.
Lots of wasted people taking off clothes. unfortunately, these were exactly the last people you would ever want to be taking off any clothes whatsoever.
almost got ran over by a police car speeding through the front lawn of an elementary school chasing some dudes on the roof.
admission is atrocious — $ 10 to park and $ 10 a head to get in. and just a bunch of inbred-​looking skanks once you do get in.
Next year, we’ll give it a miss.

Aww this is the shiznit! I am so going to be there. I think that I’ll either take my boat or ride with hubby on the bike. Traffic is a bear and so is parking. Just get there early and dress comfy.
Get the crawdads in the outdoor eating area. Last year I went to the Chinese Restaurant on main street. The crawdads were good, but they put some sort of sauce on them, so they were some slippery little devils to eat.
Bring lots of water, portable seating and sunblock!

Nestled between Antioch & Sac is the tiny delta town of Isleton. Small town charm in a redneck, leather clad, Harley Davidson riding kind of way. The weekend festival has cheesy arts & crafts booths (anyone need some leather pants for the hot 80 degree weather?) and standard carnival rides/​games (knock down those beer bottles, Bobby!) for the kids. It’s the cajun music and crawdads that are the draw here.
Learned how to suck the head and fish out the tailmeat method of meat of eating crawdads (not recommended for lazy/don’t like feeling like a savage-​eater like myself), which were SPICEY!
So much bad for you good food — roasted butter slathered corn on the cob, crawdad sausages, hand-​dipped ice cream. My favorites were the beignets fresh/​hot/​doused with powdered sugar and the refreshing ginger iced tea.
Highlight was a photo with Mr. Crawdad himself!

My sister and I have been hooked on Isleton’s Crawdad Festival for the last couple of years. We’d shop our hearts out venturing the dozens of vendors. Then we’d stuff our faces with not so typical county fair food.
Crawdads… or crayfish, cooked Louisiana-​style. With tons and tons of flavor. Alligator kabobs, deep fried twinkies, smoked turkey drumsticks, fresh (YUMMY) beignets… I could go on and on.
However, chatting with one of the locals today, I found out that the festival is now being organized by a different group of people. The changes threw me off. The festival is now a two day deal and not a three. The entrance into the festival throws you around a full block. Less vendors. None of the port-​a-​sinks… you know, the ones that go with the port-​a-​potties, but have pump soap and pump water were missing. Who wants to eat after NOT washing their hands? ewwww.
The history of the festival is quite interesting… the residents of Isleton are gracious. I really hate to see the festival take a couple of steps back of what it used to be.
Maybe next year.