Eight tons of crawfish and free music: Crawfest draws thousands

This article was published in The Hullabaloo on April 23, 2010.
An estimated crowd of 7,000 celebrated Tulane’s fourth annual Crawfest Saturday, consuming all 16,000 pounds of crawfish by 3 p.m. The musical performances continued until 9 p.m.

Featuring 10 local bands, 11 local art vendors, five food vendors and 10 non-profit stands, Crawfest attracted a larger crowd of non-Tulane affiliates this year than ever before.

The Crawfest Committee, an elected group within Undergraduate Student Government, spends from $130,000 – 150,000 to put on Crawfest each year.

“I don’t think most people realize it, but preparing for Crawfest literally takes a year,” Sponsorship Chair Blandon David said. “We’re already having meetings to plan Crawfest Five. But it’s completely worth it because the event affects everyone: undergraduate students, graduate students, professors, prospective students and the entire New Orleans community.”

Because Tulane student fees included in tuition pay for the crawfish, the Crawfest committee charged non-Tulane affiliates $10 per bracelet to buy crawfish.

“We sold more crawfish bracelets than in past years,” David said. “Every year we have gotten better with advertising, and it really showed with everyone from the community that came out.”

Because the staff stopped selling bracelets when the crawfish ran out, it is impossible to determine the exact number of people who came to this year’s Crawfest.

“We did really well, with a 40 percent increase in sales from last year,” said Erica Trani of InExchange, one of the clothing vendors present at the festival. “We are hoping for that kind of luck at JazzFest.”

Along with the vendors, artists also said they were pleasantly surprised with the Tulane crowd.

“Multiple artists came up and told us that they were treated better at Crawfest than at any other event or festival,” Crawfest Committee Chair Becky Sahm said.

New Orleans musician and Crawfest headliner Trombone Shorty “Tweeted” after his performance Saturday.

Trombone Shorty “had a lotta fun at Tulane crawfest today,” according to the Tweet. “They really know how 2 party!!”