It was easy to spot Rob Hughes in the crowd at the Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival benefiting Porter-Leath.
He was the one wearing a crawfish on his head. Other people carried crawfish in buckets.
Actually, Hughes, who is Porter-Leath’s vice-president for development, was wearing a crown with a red crawfish hat pinned in the inside. “It’s the official crown for the ‘King of Crawfish,’” Hughes says.
And who bestowed that title on him? “I just did. In the last five seconds.”
Crown or no crown, Hughes was the happiest “crawfish” at the festival.
The crowd was estimated to be in the 30,000 to 35,000 range, Hughes says. For their estimates, he says, “We usually rely on our food trucks and our food vendors and certainly the [Memphis] police department.”
And, he says, 16,000 pounds of crawfish were sold. “We sold every last pincer down there.”
Ethan Sao, Jennifer Rogers, Sarah Straub, Perri Chan, Hayden Perez, Aubree Vaccaro at the Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Vendors were on hand with culinary items, including corndogs, for those who didn’t want to stand in line for mudbugs.
The festival, which celebrated its 30th anniversary, moved to a new location this year. Actually, moved over is more like it. The event was usually held between Beale Street and Union Avenue. This year, it was moved between Union Avenue and Jefferson Avenue. “Obviously, a little bit of nervousness any time there’s a new layout. Kind of like moving to a new house.”
But the new location “allowed us to do some new things,” Hughes says, adding: “The new space allowed us to spread out and bring green space.”
People watched the river go by and enjoyed the breeze, Hughes says. And they got to take advantage of Fourth Bluff Park and River Garden.
The festival also raised a lot of money for Porter-Leath, Hughes says. “It should be right at six figures. It’s still a little early. But signs are pointing in that direction.”
The festival wasn’t held in 2020 because of the pandemic. And Hughes believes they skipped a year in the early ‘90s.
So, 2023 marked the official 30th anniversary of the Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival. “We definitely celebrated in style. And everybody came out for the party.”
