The first-ever NOLA Crawfish Festival will take over NOLA Brewing Co.’s Tap Room from April 25 to 27, thus providing Jazz Festers with yet another place to party between the festival’s first and second weekends.

NOLA Crawfish Festival schedule. (Click to enlarge)

While the event will find musical masters like George Porter Jr., Anders Osborne, Jon Cleary, Nigel Hall, John Gros, Ivan Neville and other performing in various configurations, the big draw for many attendees will undoubtedly be the crawfish.

In addition to thousands of pounds from Chris “Shaggy” Davis, attendees will also get to feast on boiled mudbugs from contestants in the mini-fest’s Ultimate Crawfish Cook-Off. The competition will feature 20 two-person teams, who will each boil 40 pounds to be enjoyed by festivalgoers and critiqued by a panel of judges.

As for that judges panel, the NOLA Crawfish Festival promised that it would be comprised of local cleebrities when they dropped their lineup earlier this year. It appears that the organizers came through in that regard, enlisting guitarist Anders Osborne, Radiators/Raw Oyster Cult guitarist Dave Malone, chef Nathanial Zimet of Boucherie, renowned chef Kristin Essig, Miss Louisiana 2016 Maaliyah Papillion, and Louisiana crawfish icon Al Scramuzza.

More information on the NOLA Crawfish Festival, including ticket options, can be found via the event’s website. We’re also giving away a couple of VIP tickets to the festival, but the contest closes on Friday, April 22.