ST. MARTIN PARISH — Excitement filled the streets of St. Martin Parish on Friday as thousands of visitors and locals gathered for the return of the annual Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival.
Now in its 65th year, the festival opened with a bustling crowd, dozens of food vendors, and the unmistakable sounds of zydeco, Cajun and Creole music. People lined up early to get their hands on fresh, steaming crawfish and other regional delicacies.
“This is 65 years,” said Mark Bernard, president of the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival Association. “We started it back in '59. It was a centennial celebration. It was such a huge success that in 1960 it became the Crawfish Festival — and we’ve been rolling ever since.”
Since then, Breaux Bridge has proudly worn the title “Crawfish Capital of the World,” and the festival has become one of Acadiana’s longest-running cultural traditions.
Bernard says they expect to welcome more than 30,000 attendees over the course of the three-day weekend. Along with mountains of crawfish, festivalgoers can enjoy live music, dancing, arts and crafts, and family-friendly events throughout the weekend.
Events continue through Sunday.
