With crawfish season only lasting approximately five months every year, there’s hardly enough time for fans of the red bugs to fire up their tanks of propane and boil up a bag. Organizers of the DownTown Lake Charles Crawfish Festival will give everyone a chance to get their fill of the delicacy before it’s too late.

The festival will be open on the grounds of the Lake Charles Civic Center beginning April 12 through April 14. The festival will include activities such as live music, a kid’s zone, carnival rides and over 10,000 pounds of boiled crawfish with tickets to cost $7 before 5 p.m. and $10 after 5 p.m. for adults, with kids 10 and under being admitted for free.

“We celebrate crawfish because Southwest Louisiana is known for their cuisine, and for crawfish this is their home. It’s a great festival with live music, a pageant where we crown Miss Crawfish, vendors selling everything from clothes and hats to books, and food of all kinds, barbecue, snow cones and of course crawfish,” event organizer Eligha Guillory said.

The festivities will begin on April 12, with the opening of the festival’s carnival at 4 p.m., a parade will follow at 5:30 p.m. The parade will begin on Bord du Lac Drive onto Lakeshore Drive North, across to Mill Street, it will then take a right onto Ryan Street, a right onto Clarence Street and continue to Bord du Lac Drive onward towards the Civic Center.

Gates to the festival will open on Saturday at 11 a.m., with Mayor Randy Roach to perform opening ceremonies for the festival at 1 p.m., with a crawfish eating contest to follow at 1:30. Performances will begin at 2:30 p.m. with Chris Miller and the Bayou Roots, Lawrence Ardoin and Tradition Creole at 4 p.m., Lil’ Nate and Zydeco Big Timers at 5:30 p.m., Andre Thierry and Zydeco Magic at 7:30 p.m. and will end with Travis Matte and the Bayou Kingpins at 9 p.m.

The festival will be open on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. for Family Day and will feature a leukemia tribute flash dance at 12:30 p.m., performances by Chris Shearman and the Bayou Roots at 2 and 3 p.m., a dance by the American Cancer society entitled “The Harlem Shake-away Cancer” and a demonstration of Zydeco Fitness at 4:30 p.m.

(American Press Archives)