Cajun Crawfish & Music Festival

Come hungry and take your chance for a win at the Annual Crawfish Eastin Challenge (be prepared this can be messy!).

Downtown Abacoa is going Mardi Gras Cajun on the 5^th & 6th of April 2025 with the engaging smells, tastes, and sounds known only to N’awlins, plenty of city celebrative purple, green and gold decorations, bundles of bead necklaces, tubs of crawdads, and Cajun Master Crawfish Broiler, Louisiana John is back again with his family and will be gettin’ busy broilin’ up the tasty little “mudbugs”!

Enjoy your choice of a Louisiana staple, the Po’boy, including soft shell crab, chicken, shrimp, crawfish, and Andouille sausage. And, how did this classic originate? … the Martin brothers, Benny and Clovis, were former streetcar conductors who worked in New Orleans in the mid-1910’s. The name "poor boy" is believed to have come from the streetcar strikers whom the brothers supported. About the 1920’s the brothers created and introduced the Po’ Boy at the New Orleans’ French Market where they owned a coffee stand.

If you haven’t tried Muffuletta, described as one of the “five most important sandwiches in the history of life, the universe, and everything else”, you’ll be missing “the magic”! This classic New Orleans sandwich starts with its name sake “Muffuletta” bread. Originally created at the Central Grocery in New Orleans when the enterprising owner suggested that customers place their typical lunch of sliced cured meat and preserved vegetables inside the bread instead of alongside it, the sandwich can now be found all over the city and the world, maybe even the universe?!!. This made great packed lunch fare also as it is one of the few foods that actually gets better as it sits around at room temperature. With its constructed thin layers of cold cuts and olive salad (chopped olives; chopped pickled celery, cauliflower, and carrots (giardiniera); garlic, olive oil; and vinegar, roasted red peppers), it’s specially textured soft crust bread will soak up the sweet and sour olive oil rich flavors…and that’s when “the magic” gets real!

For a true walk on the French side, and mustn’t be skipped, is the Crawfish Capitol of the Worlds Crawfish Etouffee. “Etouffee”, French meaning smothered or suffocated, is a method of cooking where seafood is smothered in vegetables and sauce becoming a stew-like dish that will dazzle the taste buds!

Of course, there will be all kinds of traditional dishes such as Seafood Gumbo and Jambalaya, both originating in Louisiana in the 18th century. Other Cajun Fest favorites include Cajun Seafood Rice, Gator Tail, Crab Cakes, Shrimp & Grits, Crawfish Bites, Shrimp Boil, Fresh and Fried Oysters, conch fritters and more!

Want to learn some Cajun culinary skills of your own!?  Come hang out with Voodoo Bayou! They have prepared cooking demonstrations teaching and sharing their personal food and drink favorites just for you!