If anyone knows how to boil crawfish, it’s Greg Latiolais, who has been a part of the festival for 40 years.
This year, it’s a family affair for Latiolais and his family. They are running the festival with Chez Sydney Catering, taking over for B&L Boilers.
He said preparing for an event like this takes all year, and 30,000 people are expected to be in attendance.
“We boil everyday,” Latiolais said. “And the crawfish are pretty. They look the best so far, crawfish looks the best right now.”
Quinton Babineaux and Christian Guidry, who are catering, said they’re excited for this new tradition, with the same recipe as B&L Boilers, of course.
“First year running it, we wanna come out and meet people and have a good time and feed people,” Babineaux said.
Publicity and Pageant Director Angelique Bernard has been with the festival for 40 years. She’s seen the festival in various places over the years, including Downtown Lafayette, and said Breaux Bridge is the perfect location.
“Breaux Bridge was where etouffee first started,” Bernard said.
“And that is why we became in 1959, we had the Breaux Bridge Centennial Crawfish Celebration. And it was such a huge success that in 1960 Robert Bob Angelle, who was a state representative proclaimed Breaux Bridge the Crawfish Capital of the World.”
She said the music is her favorite part, but she’s waiting for someone to beat the world record for the crawfish eating contest of 55 pounds in 45 minutes.
“To watch these people, and these people eat up to 27 to 32 pounds of Crawfish in 45 minutes,” Bernard said.
“And to watch the sweat come off and to watch them eat it, and get up and get full and then sit down, and then to hear the crowd cheer their favorite people on and that tent is full of people, that’s my favorite.”
The festival kicked off Friday evening and will go through Sunday.
