This Saturday, May 12, the University of New Orleans will hold its seventh annual Crawfish Mambo, a cook-off and music festival on the lake. The event, held on Founders Ave. on UNO’s lakefront campus, will feature dozens of crawfish boils cooked by teams competing for cash prizes, trophies and bragging rights. There will also be a crawfish eating competition for those patrons willing to twist tails and suck heads until their brains lose all executive function.

At last year’s Crawfish Mambo, Dhose Bodacious Crawfish from DBC Bar & Grill took home a $1,000 “Best of the Boil” prize, beating out 44 other teams. 2017 was also the year that introduced the Peel N’ Eat Crawfish Competition, which awarded another $1,000 to the person who could eat the most crawfish in ten minutes. Other prizes awarded included “Best Side,” “Crowd Favorite” and “Best Decorated Booth.”

Gates will open at 11 a.m., at which point the incomparable Robin Barnes will take the stage, followed by James Andrews & the Crescent City Swing at 1 p.m., Phunky Monkeys at 2 p.m. and Corey Henry & Treme Funktet at 3 p.m. Crawfish Mambo also invites local artists to sell their crafts in the Mambo Artists’ Village. Download the artist application here.

Advance tickets are available now for $25 ($35 day of, $15 for UNO students). Visit CrawfishMambo.com for more information.