The NOLA Crawfish Festival will return for its second incarnation next week. Much like last year’s debut, the event will take place during the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday between both weekends of Jazz Fest (May 1-3). Unlike last year’s debut, the party will go down at the The Smokeyard at Central City BBQ instead of the NOLA Brewing Company.
Another thing the festival will bring back is its Ultimate Crawfish Cook-Off, a crawfish boiling competition that will pit 20 teams against each other on the final day of the Crawfish Festival. Organizers have just announced the panel of judges, which will be comprised of a few New Orleans music and culinary luminaries. The panel includes original “Crawfish King” Al Scramuzza, Miss New Orleans Kim Newville, chef Aaron Burgau (Patois/Central City BBQ), chef Nathaniel Zimet (Que Crawl, Boucherie), Al “Carnival Time” Johnson, David Shaw (The Revivalists) and Ben Ellman (Galactic).
The cook-off will kick off at 3pm on Wednesday, May 3, and the winner will be announced between 6 and 7pm.
As previously reported, the NOLA Crawfish Festival will feature performances by a number of one-off supergroups, as well as New Orleans-based acts like Neville Jacobs, Khris Royal & Dark Matter, Boukou Groove, Good Enough for Good Times, Corey Henry & The Treme Funktet, Eric Lindell, Raw Oyster Cult feat. Darcy Malone + special guests, and Organ Freeman. Artists participating in the supergroups include George Porter Jr., John Medeski, Eric Krasno, Nigel Hall, John “Papa” Gros, June Yamagishi, Luther Dickinson, Jon Cleary, Terence Higgins, Tony Hall and more.
General admission tickets grants you one beer and guarantees two pounds of Chris “Shaggy” Davis’ crawfish with all the fixings, while VIP and Super VIP passes will offer extra amenities. Additional crawfish, as well as BBQ dishes, will be available for purchase. Ticketing information can be found via the festival’s website.
A portion of all ticket proceeds will support Anders Osborne and the CAN’d Aid Foundation’s new Send Me a Friend initiative, which assist touring musicians who are in recovery by connecting them with temporary sponsors while they’re on the road.
