Louisiana Crawfish Festival

Objectively, this is more or less your standard festival. There's a lot of food booths, a music stage, merchandise stalks, and a large section of carnival rides and games for kids. It lasts for four days, with admission being free on the first day and then $5 in the remaining three days. It's pretty easy to get to, and parking isn't even that bad because there's a large Wal-Mart right next door.As far as attractions go, there were two standouts. First was the caricature drawing booth, a neat idea that I don't recall seeing at many festivals. Second was the crawfish bread. With Jazz Fest postponed, the chance to get crawfish bread was awesome. Not that I actually got any - that line was waaay too long - but still.Because the pandemic is still a thing, the festival this year has one unusual offering: vaccines. I saw at least two different tables set up to give COVID vaccines. They were set up kinda off the beaten path though, and didn't seem to have any takers. Still not a bad idea though.

The grounds are pretty large with basically two sides. The one side is a traditional carnival with food spots, carnival rides, and carnival games. The other side is actually the crawfish area. There is a stage with a live band and about 20 stands. Being that this was a "crawl fish" festival it was a bit disappointing that only one place had boiled crawfish. All of the other stands had standard fried food and one stand had crawfish pasta. The boiled crawfish was the best part of the festival. I tried the crab cake bites. I'm still waiting for the crab. Tasted only of filler. Also had the fried shrimp and fries. The fries were not good and the shrimp tasted Watery and bland, almost as if it was fried straight from frozen and the water held in the batter. The event was sponsored by bud light and the beers were a great price. Only four dollars for an aluminum can. The workers were extremely nice. Overall the vibe was pretty good but the food was not. It was your typical carnival food.

St Bernard Parish!!!! I love St Bernard Parish because 1. The residents of this parish know how to have a good time 2. Everyone knows each other.The Crawfish Festival is St Bernard Parish's signature event each year. This is the big kahuna of all things St Bernard does all year. Warning: The festival area itself is not overly large for the crowds that they attract. So be prepared to park at least a half-mile away. Also, come prepared to wait if you plan on riding any of their carnival rides. Most of the rides have 30-40 ppl waiting in each line. Some of the rides they have each year include a ferris wheel, The Zipper (First place I ever rode the zipper was at this festival in '04), Tilt-A-Whirl, Octopus, and lots of other rides for kids.The layout of the festival is nice as most of the carnival rides are on one side. The carnival booths are in the middle and the food/music stage is on the other side from the rides. The rides are usually about 4 tickets per ride ($1 per ticket) or you can buy an all-day wristband for $20. The food is about 80% crawfish dishes. They have so many different crawfish options: boiled crawfish, crawfish nachos, crawfish cakes, crawfish pies, crawfish potatoes, and more. For those that don't eat crawfish they have pizza, gumbo, jambalaya, philly cheesesteaks, chicken on a stick, and the carnival staple (funnel cakes). Of course a festival wouldn't be a festival in Louisiana without the customary daiquiris. So don't fret all of you daq lovers. Daiquiris are sold here at the fest.The local band The Topcats played there Sunday night till 10pm and they were a blast! They had all of us doing the Conga line at one point. The crawfish fest is such a treat! I look forward to it each year!

Uhoh, I'm the Debbie Downer amongst Crawfish Fest reviewers. The Russian judge, the hard ass, the Simon Cowell of Yelp if you will.The Crawfish Fest is a staple in Da Parish. It's the 1 time of year for some of the peeps in surrounding parishes to find their way to Chalmette. Y'all don't make your shrimp boot jokes then! It had gotten out of hand with the crowds in the last few years so they started charging 5.00 a piece to keep the riff raff out. That's not a bad admission for a festival.....except this is NOT a festival. It's a fair no different from the tons of fairs in Metairie at every Catholic church. Sure they serve crawfish a bunch of different ways. It's one of the only ways to get the elusive crawfish bread but other than that it's just shitty carnival food. There are typical carny rides that cost more than admission to Disney World when it's all said and done. Carnivals and Fairs are not my thing but hey if it's yours go and have a good time. I'll eat my crawfish in a place I can actually get a seat to enjoy them.

Hittin' it up for that good good! I really meant to say, I went for the famous crawfish bread. As I was treading slowly on the treadmill today, I pondered on what would be a treat for my hard workout. Of course, the obvious answer...Crawfish fest, crawfish bread. Be forewarn, it costs $9. However, cost of everything else is rising so the price is still fair. Don't know where to find it? No problem. With an admission fee of $5, make use of your time in there. There games, rides, and entertainment besides food. The crawfish bread stand is very easy to find. From the entrance, walk straight until you pass the port-o-pottys and it is on that very corner.

2016 festival proved a little anticlimactic. I wouldn't recommend the fest for the food alone. There are a few rides and some music to go along with it. It costs $5 to get in, but nothing is included for the admission. We had a crawfish pies from both places serving them. They were both Luke warm, but had good flavor. It was very crowded and hard to move around. Taking the kids for a little family fun isn't necessarily a bad idea, but it's not one of the best festivals in the area.

Last weekend was the first time ever seeing Chalmette. It was also the first time ever seeing a guy on what I can only presume was a date wearing a sleeveless shirt that said "Free Breathalyzer Test - BLOW HERE" with an arrow pointing down.I, as I'm sure everyone around, including his date, was grateful for the free service, as there was much drinking to be had at this festival, and we all wanted to arrive home safely, freshly won bunny and lizard in hand.Yes, that's right, there was a booth where you could throw a ping pong ball into a floating cup and win your choice of a live lizard, bunny, or even baby chick. I gotta say, this one felt a tad wrong. It was also the source of a funny story on the way in, where we passed by a family on the way out, comprised of a child happily carrying a new chicken, a father beaming with pride for obviously having won the baby chick, and a mother who noticed our looking at the chicken before asking, "Do you wanna take it?" The "please please PLEASE?" part of this plea went unmentioned, but well understood.Foods we tried...Crawfish Tacos:My favorite crawfish dish of the day. I enjoyed the boiled crawfish flavor and the sauce. Wrapped in a flour tortilla, it reminded me of something Taco Bell would serve as a special, and no that's not a dig. It's a compliment. (I love Taco Bell)Crawfish Chimichanga:This deep fried spicy bomb was covered in queso sauce making it a bit difficult to fully taste the crawfish, but still, I quite enjoyed it. It was heavy and delicious.Oyster Roll:I didn't have this one because I can't, but Katie liked it okay. It was like an eggroll but with oysters. Deep fried and covered in a cream-based sauce, it was a bit too on the heavy side for Katie to finish all of it.Deep Fried King Size Reese's Fast Break:HOLY MOTHER OF DIABETES. This was AMAZING. I think this was a last minute thing too. It actually wasn't even on the menu. Butterfingers were, but they ran out. So I think what happened was that someone had to go to the store to get more, and got boxes of King Size Fast Breaks because they needed something peanut butter-based and couldn't find anything else. For those who don't know what Fast Breaks are, it's like a snickers but with peanut butter instead of peanuts. Anyhow, this was battered and deep fried, then covered in chocolate syrup and powdered sugar, and I loved every single goddamn lethal sugar toxicity bite of it.All in all this is a fun festival with some tasty options, and some even better people watching. There are also rides for the kids, and cover bands for people who like cover bands.And if you're really lucky...There's a FREE breathalyzer test.

I was very hesitant to write a review because I didn't want to make anyone not want to attend the fest. Let me burst some bubbles for all my folks that have been going for years like myself. PSA !!!!! IT'S FIVE DOLLARS Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FIVE DOLLARS YALLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For an even just a year ago was free. I enjoyed this festival better honestly when it was free! I went more time last year when it was free!!! Sadly to say but i was appalled when I showed up at this normally free event and saw a Five dollar sign. I had shrieked a little and even got pissed. The good news. Handicap and babies get in free. Oh why must I pay for being able to stand up! This used to be one of my fave festivals to go to. Okay so got inside the even that I just paid five dollars for and literally everything have gone up a dollar or two. Blow by blow on how this went what I ordered and how easy i blew through 50$ on my own by myself! Crawfish pasta (used to be 7$ last year) now $8. OK. if you had a $20 dollar bill now you hAVe 12 bucks! ok Got me some crawfish and a potato. (crawfish was $11 potato $1) 12 bucks right there buddy! so so far that's $20 bucks! I got thirsty and wanted a snowball because i wanted my son to have some sort of fun. That was $4.50 bucks. Got hungry again after an hour of walking and ordered a chili cheese dog 5$bro! I'm at $29.50. I got mad and was like that's it no more money. and hour later got thirsty and my son needed wash down that snowball and crawfish I gave him ( how high those prices were he had no choice but to eat what i was eating) so got a bottle of water which was $2.00. We are at $31.50. Thank God my son isn't at the stage where he can ride on the rides, I saved money there. However i wanted to enjoy something with my son so we played a dart game cause my son like throwing sharp objects. $5 bucks! ($36.50). I had to buy my son his fisrt Air-brushed baby Tee shirt yall. $12.00 ($48.50) I realized I had enough. So we left. I was somewhat ok because at least I didnt spend $50 . I WAS WRONG YA'LL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had spent a whopping $53.50 at this damn fest! I forgot to add up the $5.00 entrance fee! Hopefully I'll have an outstanding job next year when i go. LOL!

The crawfish bread is very tasty! Must try it if your in the festival. It's 9 $ . It got smaller from what I remember. The gator on a stick was over priced. It had only four very small pieces for 8$.but that's all festivals. The St Bernard parish crawfish were tasty as well. The plate of crawfish was 11$ and the sausage was 3$, corn was 2$(you get two though)

Im looking to do any crawfish festival i could, ive been doing the one in Breaux Bridge, La. for the last forty years and would like to extend, latch 1225 @cox. com