The story
Crawfish Festival in Fountain Valley
The Crawfish Festival brings fresh live crawfish, Zydeco music, and beignets to Fountain Valley Sports Park each May, billing itself as the biggest crawfish festival outside Louisiana. Running for more than 28 years under earlier branding as the Long Beach Crawfish Festival before relocating and renaming, the three-day event has become a Southern California fixture for New Orleans-style food and music.
More than 28 years ago, organizers launched what was then known as the Long Beach Crawfish Festival, betting that Southern California, thousands of miles from the Louisiana bayous where crawfish boils originated, had enough appetite for Cajun and Creole food and Zydeco music to sustain an annual festival.