Whether it’s pronounced Crawfish or Crayfish get ready to eat some fish this weekend at the festival. The smells of Cajun seasoned crawfish and the sounds of the Cajun fiddle are coming to the West Alabama region this weekend April 16&17 as Alabama’s 2004 annual Crawfish Festival in Faunsdale gets underway.

John “Ca-John” Broussard, owner of the Faunsdale Bar and Grill and many other crawfish lovers started the event in 1992 with the hopes of spreading their love of crawfish to the masses who’ve never eaten a crawfish before. The festival had very humble beginnings back in 1992 when Broussard invited about 300 people for crawfish at his bar more than 3,000 showed up.

“When we first started this event, we never expected it to grow as much as it has,” Broussard said.

Over the next ten years since its beginning, the crowds have continued to grow upwards of 40,000 at one event. This is a huge amount of people considering the population of Faunsdale is about 99 give or take.

He said now they know to expect a huge crowd of people, so this year they’re cooking about 20,000 to 30,000 pounds of crawfish.

“We will have plenty of crawfish for everyone whether you want it here or to go, we got you covered,” Broussard said.

But this Crawfish Festival is about more then just eating crawfish and having a few beers. There are many different activities for children and the casual shopper as there will be booths with craftsmen displaying their goods and arts&crafts for the children. During the Friday and Saturday event besides having booths for shoppers and children’s events there will also be many different bands providing music for all the visitors.

With all these different events its makes people almost forget about the star of the show, the crawfish. And man oh man do they have crawfish, every different way there is possible to eat them boiled, pies, etouffees, gumbo, fried and many more.

“The crawfish will be ready around 10:00 a.m. both Friday and Saturday,” Broussard said.

The biggest event of the Crawfish Festival is the crawfish eating contest, which is on Saturday, April 17 at 3:00 p.m. A true Louisianan band called “Chank-Ay-Ric” will be providing the music from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday.

The Friday lineup of music includes groups such as Slo Gin and DJ Buzz. On Saturday, the bands will include Rollin’ in the Hay, Tennessee Hat Country, and Wayne Mills Band.

“We have a great arrangement of bands lined up for this year’s event,” Broussard said.

Proceeds from this event go to help support the Faunsdale Volunteer Fire Department buy equipment. If anyone would like more information on this event, please visit www.ca-johns.com or call the Faunsdale Bar and Grill at 334-628-3240.