Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival

Breaux Bridge - a small town a few miles east of Lafayette, Louisiana - proudly claims to be the crawfish capital of the world. To celebrate this proud boast, the town holds an annual festival where all things crawfish are available. There's a celebrity crawfish eating competition, crawfish races, a crawfish etouffee cook-off and crawfish cooked in a variety of ways, along with a fairground and craft stalls. It's a festival for the local Cajun community and the music reflects that.

On this, my first visit - the Friday evening - , I saw the Li'l Band of Gold comprising local musicians including Steve Riley, C C Adcock, 70 year old Warren Storm, whose hair continues to be fiercely black (how does he do it?) and songwriter David Egan, fresh from their free concert in New Orleans the previous night. Next on was Geno Delafose and French Rocking Boogie, one of the best zydeco bands around, who got the locals dancing in great numbers, while on the second stage was local favourite Don Rich, who wasn't really to my taste. Anyone who starts his act with America the Beautiful loses my vote. The following day it was the turn of Steve Riley again (pictured), this time with his Cajun band the Mamou Playboys, who also stirred the audience onto the dance floor.

Overall, it's a laid back festival with a local flavour, and just great if you like Cajun music - and crawfish.