26-05-2025
At the Crawfish Fest, all are welcome to rock (and we mean all)
One country, indivisible.
That's what it says in The Pledge of Allegiance. But perhaps you've noticed that we're not so indivisible right now. Perhaps you've noticed that red states and blue states, North and South, are increasingly pitted against each other.
In this tense climate, any hands-across-the-states gesture is significant. And for sheer fun, few can top Michael Arnone's Crawfish Fest — bringing a taste of Louisiana to New Jersey for 32 years.
"The New Jersey audiences have always been great," said Marcia Ball, the honky-tonk piano virtuoso who is one of the headliners at this year's festival, May 31 and June 1 in Augusta, at the Sussex County Fairgrounds (she's appearing 1 p.m. Sunday on the Main Stage).
Galactic (5 p.m. Saturday), Bonerama (2:45 Saturday), Rockin' Dopsie Jr. (3 p.m. Saturday), George Porter Jr. (3 p.m. Sunday), Terrance Simien (11:30 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. Sunday), John Cleary (5 p.m. Sunday) and New Jersey's own Ocean Avenue Stompers (1 p.m. Sunday) are among the other top acts that will be bringing the swampy sounds of the Bayou State to the marsh dwellers of North Jersey.
"They've always been energetic and excellent in response to our music," Ball said. "We have a lot of friends up there, too, so it's always a pleasure to come. And we get to eat some crawfish! That's my favorite part."
Crawfish — boiled, almost 10,000 pounds, imported direct from Louisiana — is the dish du jour, as the name of the festival implies. But there are plenty of others. Jambalaya. Shrimp, oyster and catfish po' boys. Grilled oysters. Grilled alligator sausage. Southern fried chicken. Red beans and rice (vegetarian). Crawfish Étouffée. Boudin sausage balls. Burgers, dogs and fries. And lots to drink — alcoholic and otherwise.
If the weather holds, Arnone said, they expect between 15,000 and 18,000 people over the course of the weekend (campers, who stay on the grounds, get to see additional music on Friday and Saturday night).
And the sounds are as tasty as the snacks. Louisiana, as is well known, has developed a unique musical menu.
Zydeco — rock-and-roll with accordions — swamp funk, jazz, boogie and blues are all part of the mix. So are traditional Cajun waltzes, Second Line struts, and Afro-Cuban percussion. Music is one of Louisiana's prime exports — its stars travel the world bringing their specialties to audiences worldwide.
But an event like this, that brings dozens of Louisiana artists together for an out-of-state reunion, is special. For a performer like Ball — she's played this gig before — it's old home week.
"I remember when we used to come up to the Crawfish Festival and there would be vans and trailers parked all around the stage like a necklace," she said. "Steve Riley, Terrance Simien, Geno Delafose, Chubby Carrier, and more. It was a honky-tonk supershow."
Ball — for those who haven't seen her — is a phenomenon. One of the best barrelhouse pianists in the business: Jerry Lee Lewis in a shift, with a voice that is pure country molasses. Her songs like "That's Enough of that Stuff" and "Let Me Play With Your Poodle" are rowdy enough to get any party going. Johnny Moeller (guitar), Michael Archer (bass), Mo Roberts (drums) and Eric Bernhardt (sax), her band, are all aces.
She's touring all over the Northeast now, and plans to do another record over the summer. But she does worry, as she travels, about the state of the union at present.
"I have some serious anxiety about what's going on in our country right now," she said. "I'm blue — in both ways."
Perhaps part of what is needed is for all of us to start talking to each other again. That's a little service that Arnone, at his festival, offers free of charge.
"At the Crawfish Fest, you're standing next to someone on line, and the next thing is, 'Where did you hear about it? Where are you from?' " Arnone said. "Music and food tie people together."
He himself is from Baton Rouge: he came up to Jersey in the 1980s to work as an electrician. But he discovered that's a hunger here for the tastes and tunes of his home state. That's his jambalaya you'll be eating, by the way: a family recipe.
He held his first Crawfish Fest — a relatively small affair — in 1989. He's been holding them ever since (with a few years off for COVID), and they've grown. But not too much. "We're a medium size festival and that's as big as we want to get," he said.
The important thing is not the size, but the atittude. The traditional, convivial spirit of Louisiana might be just what we all need right now, he said.
"We've always been that way," he said. "People can come to the shows, different races and different states, and everybody gets along. I don't ask people who they voted for when the come in. It doesn't matter. To each his own. You're here to have a good time. We're trying to get you to forget whatever else is happening in the world."
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This article originally appeared on Crawfish Fest in Sussex NJ 2025: Louisiana tastes and tunes galore
