Absolutely embarrassing traffic control. Two hours to drive 1/2 mile. Organizer needs to be fined, fired and hung out on a yard arm. Ruined a wonderful day. A little bit of an update.... we spent the afternoon at the festival and it was pretty sad. Only one vendor had crawdads and the line was 2 1/2 hours long. Very, very disappointing. read more

I was excited when I first learned about this festival but after attending the "Crawdad" festival on Saturday June 17th 2023, I left feeling stupendously disappointed. My buddy purchased the event tickets and parking ticket online. We were coming from Oakland and arrived to the festival around 2pm. We weren't stuck in traffic for a long period of time compared to other folks and it did not take long for us to get parking. Upon arriving, there were people directing traffic to the parking lot. Once we arrived to the lot, the guys at the lot told us they cannot honor our online parking ticket. They told us that their parking lot is private land, unaffiliated with the event, and that we need to talk to the "organizers" for the online parking. My buddy ended up paying $20. When we arrived to the festival, the line was long to enter and there wasn't any staff or signs to inform people that there was two lines. Once we entered, we found out that there was only ONE crawdad booth at this "Crawdad" festival. We came here strictly for crawdads and waited in line for 3 hours and purchased 8lbs of crawdads only for it to taste like someone who was drunk in the mud. Oh wait, the chef was literally drinking while cooking! No wonder it didn't taste good. I thought I was going to taste some of the best crawdads I've ever had, but nope. It was utterly disappointing and majority of our time was spent standing in line and eating 8lbs of disgusting crawdads. Would I go back again? Sure but I wouldn't waste my time for one single Crawdad booth. They should at least invite local Crawdad/Cajun restaurants and ask them to be a vendor. The point of a "Crawdad" festival is to be themed out with crawdad vendors and festivities! If the "organizer" is reading this, take notes! Shoutout to the local bar with the karaoke joint, that was the best entertainment we've had. read more

First time going was excited but a little let down. Some attractions listed/advertised were missing (we arrived Saturday from about 11:30 am - 2 pm ish). Crawdads was main draw and were yummy but they ran out of crawdad tacos early and most of the food was pricey and seating under tents was limited. Parking very dusty, bumpy dirt lots and signage/directions on how to get out wasn't clear/missing. Sadly there was no carnival, no mechanical bull and didn't see any raffles either. No idea why not. Cute street but lacked shade and it was very sunny and warm/hot. There wasn't much to shop for/buy beyond foods. Since it was really long drive and pricey and not as advertised, probably won't go again. read more

My family n I were glad to have this event back at the delta/ In the town of Islenton Ca. Prop's to the organizers & the board members at the Chamber of Commerce... it being the first, since five years, there are things that could be improved. The only problem I personally had was the extremely long wait in the line for crawdads two hours, we waited in the hot sun other than that the atmosphere people were friendly the bands were jumping I think security was plentiful and friendly a little more shade would be appreciate it for next year. Also, maybe a second area cooking crawfish please...... I know it's hard to please everyone that can't be but all in all we had a good time so thank you Islenton for bringing back the crawdad festival.. read more

Isleton Cajun Festival - Crawdads - Festivals Near Me - Isleton, California

Our family used to attend the festival every year. You'd think they would work out their political and economic issues by now. But no. How disappointing as the saga continues. This festival usually generates considerable annual revenue for the city and local businesses. But the Chamber of Commerce and the City Council are still fighting (at their own economic expense.) We stopped going when we were unable to exit the parking area for hours. (No CHP help that year.) It used to be a fun family venue. Now it's an expensive ripoff with little consideration for the attendees. read more

This was our first and last time attending this event. We sat in traffic for about 2 hours to go half a mile. Parking was a joke, took 20 minutes to walk from parking to entrance. This was a "crawfish festival" and there was only one food vendor serving crawfish. It cost $25 per person to get in and another $10 to park 20 minutes away. 3 hours of waiting in lines (traffic, parking, entrance) and this was in no way a crawfish festival. If you plan to come on Sunday, save your time and money. read more

This was our 1st time to go to the Crawdad Festival. It sounds like fun we looking forward to the festival. However, they were very unorganized in several ways. 1. They're outhouses were basically located in area which was about in the center of the festival. There about 3 more a little ways away from there. But when you have to go to the bathroom and you don't know where the outhouses are they should be posted whwere they are. Also, they should have them in the beginning, the middle, and the end of the festival. 2. We only saw one booth for crawldads and you had to buy a ticket before you could get them and the line was enormous to get your crawfdafs. If they insist on using tickets and not being able just to walk up to purchase them. Since uts the Crawdad Festival they should have several booths of crawldads. And a variety how they can be cooked. 3. You had to purchase a ticket to get beer. Also another very long line. I guess the reason was for checking IDs 3. There needed to be someone keeping the entrance line moving by directing people into two lines for security check, since there were two tables where it was being done. 4. Very few market street vendors. 5. It would have been nice to have seating areas along the street just to sit and rest or eat. There was one PLUS they had golf carts and a van to take people to and from the festival. read more

Can't just give it a half star, but that's what it deserves! HORRIBLY RUN, or actually not ran at all!! Stupid to have a ticket booth and waste 1 hr in line to buy drink tickets. There should have been a voucher purchased online with a limit in order to get drinks. Now another 1.5 hrs in line for a drink. Only then to find out that it was a 4 hour wait in line for crawdads! NOPE!!!! NEVER AGAIN! But wait!!!! Got in a good vendor line to get crocodile nuggets for one person it was $35 . Wouldn't recommend this place to a stray cat! read more

This was my First time going and my Last. I don't see how, this can be called a Crawdad Festival, with only one Vendor Serving Crawdads. We waited in line for Crawdads for one hour, to be told, that the Vendor had ran out. Then we had to wait another hour for the, One Vendor to have some more delivered. Once the Crawdads were delivered, we had to wait another hour, to get our Crawdads, a total of three hours! Ridiculous! Then the Crawdad Vendor, started serving People that was walking up to the booth over Us, who had been in line for hours. No Bathroom sign postings. There was barely any place to sit down, to eat your food! Thank God, we got there early, so the traffic was light. We went there for Crawdads, but it was everything else there, but that. To anyone planning on going, in the near future, don't go, save your money, but if you go, be prepared for a long, not so fun day! read more

The most unorganized event I have ever attended. There was only ONE worker boiling the crawdads, One Worker dishing out the crawdads, corn & potatoes. Meanwhile, a line of hundreds stood for well over an hour to be served. Come on - reorganize with more help to get things moving! My last attendance. read more

Will never go again to this promoter's event!! Skipped the event in Sacramento, not knowing it moved to Isleton , no catfish, alligator, fog legs,crawfish apparently was sold by the promoter only, Saturday when we went,went ready by the time we left at noon!! It used to be amazing. We don't recommend going! read more

"F"ing rip off. $12 for general parking, $25 for preferred Parking. There is no such thing. parking control had no ideas of Preferred parking passes or checked for prepaid parking passes. you park in the F'ing' boonies. they stole our money. there is as no charge for parking any way. read more

This was the most pathetically run event I have ever been to. There was virtually nothing crawdad related to this festival other than one vendor who sold out, and even when he did have some, it was over a two hour wait just to get them. Parking was atrocious and they had absolutely no traffic flow plan. It was a disaster for people trying to get in with people waiting upwards of 2 to 4 hours in traffic. The event coordinator should be refunding people their money. Hopefully somebody will be filing a lawsuit against this company because it was nothing more than a scam. read more

Leaving one star because I have to leave at least one. TOO MANY PEOPLE!! Spent 2 1/2 hours stuck in traffic trying to get in. Turned around and left. read more

My family went to the crawdad festival june 18,2023. Terrible. We had to walk 2 miles to get to the main entrance. one person at the ticket line to get in.nothing but food trucks. And not specializing in cajon food. It was a shocker it was so bad. read more

Where's my ZERO star rating, because that's what this crappy "Crawdad" festival deserves. The town should be so embarrassed and ashamed of themselves for hosting this miserable, pathetic event. BEYOND DISORGANIZED! Had to wait almost 2 hours to go one mile into a parking lot. Then had to walk another 20 minutes to the "festival." NEVER saw a single Crawdad! Someone said that they were at the end of the street, but I never did see it. This was nothing more than a hot, miserable, food truck event. Went into several bars that had bartenders that moved slower than my 90 year old father. Waited 25 minutes to get a beer. Didn't even acknowledge my existence while I was standing there waiting. Absolutely no place to sit outside. Why wouldn't you have had a BEER GARDEN with lots of picnic tables, you fools! Thought I could finally get a good cocktail at the "Bloody Mary" tent. $10 a cocktail, and I thought I would get a delicious hand-crafted drink. The SOB's handed me a CAN. A CAN!!! Don't waste your time on this hellish event. I very rarely write Yelp reviews, but I couldn't get on my computer fast enough today. SCREW YOU, ISLETON! read more

Very poorly planned, looks like the city is just in need of some revenue. The "Crawdad" festival had one spot to buy crawfish which had way to long to wait in. People were waiting over two hours for a small plate of crawfish. The parking was $10 and was a field that was about a half a mile away. The entire thing was overcrowded and overpriced. If you're looking for crawfish, I wouldn't recommend this. read more

Such a waste of a beautiful day. First, we got stuck in traffic, over an hour to travel less than 16 miles to the entrance. Then, we waited an hour and a half in line for the only vendor selling plates of crawdad only to learn that they had run out and it would be another 45 minutes and we were still only half way down the line. The trash cans were overflowing by noon and no staff around to tell. I saw a small group of young people wearing staff shirts laughing together and shooting the breeze. I know that they have a new group coordinating the festival this year and it seems they didn't bother to take notes on how to run the festival. Very few arts and crafts vendors, nothing appeared hand made. All in all, if I had known it was going to be like this, I would not have come. read more

Great time and good food. There were a lot of people and great vendors. Traffic was a little hectic. Felt safe tho.

It had been several years since I had been back to Isleton for their Crawdad Festival. Then that business sold out and moved to another town farther away. But now Isleton created their own local festival and renamed it the Cajun Festival. We came here on Father's Day Sunday - June 19th. Arrived somewhat early ~11:00 am. There was very little waiting time for us as we were flagged down by a nearby homeowner who was offering parking for $5.00 on her front lawn property. This was a nice convenience that allowed us to avoid a hot, dusty parking lot which we almost entered following other vehicles. Then there was a short walk to the back gate as we paid the nominal entrance fee of another $5.00. Initially my experience was up beat and excited. Bands were playing Cajun music, people were dancing, and a variety of food and drink were available. But it didn't take long until a multitude of people began pouring in. The pleasantness soon wore off for me. Now we were having to wait in long lines to eat or drink. There were very few places to sit. The food court was located on a big dusty, sun baked lot. A variety of food stands were available, but once we got our food, there was no place to sit and eat! It was ridiculous to have to find someplace to stand and hold a drink in one hand and a meal in the other. We're too old to squat and eat! My Cajun food didn't meet my expectations either. Nothing like my grandma used to make. The red beans and rice were pretty bland, and the jambalaya was over spiced. The sweet potato fries and strawberry lemonade were at least good. If you wanted an alcoholic beverage, you had to stand in line at one booth to buy tickets, then walk over to another booth to pick up your drink! Margaritas were $7.00 and if you wanted an extra shot of tequila, it was an additional $3.00. Beer was $5.00. Wine was also available, but I didn't check the prices. The bands on that day played SOME Cajun music, but not as much as I had hoped for that included zydeco. They often mixed in some rock, blues or country. There was a nice shade covered dance floor that was surrounded by bales of hay for sitting, or people who had previously claimed their spots with their own portable chairs. This made it a bit difficult for people to enter the floor without having to maneuver around the onlookers. So I have to say that the festival was OK at best. Has potential but needs to work out some bugs. The lesson I learned here is, be sure to bring your own folding chairs, use sunscreen, stake a "shady" spot if you can find one, bring lots of cash to spend, and get there early! read more

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We have fond memories of attending the Isleton Crawdad Festival in the past with our children. And we were very excited to see it had returned. Unfortunately this was not the festival I remember. We had 3 fathers with us celebrating Father's Day on June 18th and 3 of our group have never been to the festival. I was very disappointed and extremely embarrassed. We paid admission, stood in long line for drink tickets, stood in another line for the drinks. We walked the length of the event. The streets were lined with Carnival food trucks and only a few craft booths. Carnival food trucks with fried junk food are not appealing to me. We must have missed the booth with crawdads and turned around to search. Again a long line to purchase Crawdad tickets and a separate line 2 hours long to get the crawdads. We didn't see any areas provided to sit, dine and relax. We did not even have crawdads at the "Crawdad Festival". read more

Wish I could do Zero stars! Attended the Crawdad Festival for years when our children were younger and it was absolutely an annual event. What I attended this year was a food truck event with a kids area!!! We were really excited to see it was returning however it was obvious not one person involved in the planning had ever attended the event before. The fact that they charged $20 with no shade and very few tables to rest , not one person I asked questions Had any knowledge or answers. No schedule except online which was not followed and an angry man making 1 batch of crawdads at a time. Food trucks, vendors and beer lines were directly across the street from one another so to try to walk down Main Street was near impossible. My question is why wouldn't you follow some of the pat festivals great ideas, running the crawdads like the bars with several people cooking and serving, it really was ridiculous and should have the event planner embarrassed!!!!! read more

$10 parking followed by $25 per person to have the right to spend more money while inside. No thank you.

I MISS THE CRAWDAD FEST I used to spend Father's Day weekend with my dad at the Isleton Crawdad Festival. We would walk around and watch the crawdad races and eat containers of crawdads. Until I started keeping the ones I caught at our home creek as pets; then I couldn't eat them at the festival without feeling guilty. I didn't eat any this year because they were so f*kn expensive. I'm sorry, festivals are known for pricey food, but I wasn't about to overpay for these. There were quite a few food options for the small-sized festival. We decided to share a jumbo turkey leg from Willie Birds BBQ ($10). Flavor alert! This was insanely tasty. It was crispy and juicy and full of flavor - every bite. Hard to eat because it was very messy. Hard to share because it was very good. I had a lemonade with cucumber, orange, lime and peppermint for $2 from Arepas Bululu and it was really good too. So no complaints on the food. But $15 each to enter the festival, just in order to buy food? There was some live music (the band at the end of the street was terrific), stages with music playing were in a couple different places and we danced at one for a bit. Lots of vendors were around selling beads, sunglasses, bathtubs, and other trinkets. There was a mechanical bull and a little train for kids. We walked into most of the businesses and even checked out the museum. A stop at the bar and then a performance by Elvis, and that was it. I think next year we'll do the Pirate Festival in Vallejo instead, if they fall on the same weekend again. It was less money - and hopefully it will have more to do. Sad to replace such fond childhood memories of a great Festival with what it's become. read more

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This was a sh!# show! Worst planning for parking and moving people I've ever seen. There was not one sign road or others to direct people or traffic. You had to stop and ask someone. And some of them had no idea what they were talking about. We were sent in the wrong direction to get to the gate. Signage alone would have made everything move much smoother and caused much less frustration for everything. Prices were off the charts as well Thanks to social media many people were warned and turned around. Or at least given the right directions and what to expect. My advice, avoid this next year at any cost. Don't even drive in that direction. We will not go there ever again. read more

Everything said in the previous reviews by people is true and then some. All it was were food trucks and only one truck that had Crawdads at $25/lb. Had to wait in line for tickets, then drinks and any food. Nowhere to even sit Dow once you paid for the crawdad rip off. Waste of money to get in not to mention having to park a half mile away for $10. If I could give it a minus star rating I would. TOTAL waste of time & money to get nothing. All the food was expensive to boot. read more

Horrible experience. Wish I read the reviews first. Could have saved $25 each and $20 to park. Completely disorganized event. Opened at 10, pat down search... just a few vendors and lots of food trucks and food vendors that seemed to show up about 10:30 to set up. At 11am food started coming out from some vendors. Bathrooms in just one area. Never again! read more

I was so excited to see the Crawdad Festival back in Isleton. I was so disappointed that even AFTER buying tickets to attend the event, I waited in line for almost 3 hours when I was informed that they ran out of crawdads and the truck was going to deliver more in 45 minutes. The people who organized this event should be ashamed of themselves. read more

So disappointed in our decision to attend. My thoughts were out of all the people involved in organizing this event not a single well thought idea was implemented. Almost could not have thought or carried out the event in worse fashion. Literally waited in traffic 1 1/2 hours finally parked outside of Isleton and family walked in. Had already paid for tickets but since tickets were on phone with barcode had to wait in line to get in. Printed tickets got in quicker. Who prints a ticket? Regardless got in and walked the length of the food trucks. Got to the end of the road used to 100 portable restrooms that were all in one spot and then left. Waste of money time and embarrassed to have made the decision to go. Could be a spectacular event but might want a professional company to run it. 1 crawfish stand. 1? Can't make up how poorly this event was ran. read more

Last years Festival was great..this years should be even better! The 2015 Cajun & Blues Festival, sponsored by the Isleton Chamber of Commerce, held this Father's Day Weekend at E2 Family Winery on Highway 12 in Lodi, is dedicated to his memory this year, as every blues musician from festivals to the smallest of venues will honor his memory. All those players in every genre who loved him, will play the blues in honor of him as they have never played before! I first saw B.B King live at Crabshaw Corners in Sacramento when I was just a teen playing rock & roll/countrymusic as a harmonica player. I left that show a convert to the blues. While I learned to appreciate all blues, Billie Holiday, with her jazz styled infused blues, was my favorite female artist. B.B. King my favorite male blues artist. His pure original style making "Lucille" cry the blues every which way no other guitarist could, propelled B.B. to take his art-form worldwide. All the greats after him owe him homage as the trailblazer of American Blues.. While B.B. King had his influences from earlier blues figures, B.B. took the blues mainstream. Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix,, Elvin Bishop, just to name a few, all learned from... The Master. While "The Thrill Is Gone" his music and influence will live on. The lineup for this years Isleton Cajun & Blues Festival has some of the hottest acts in the business... and some of the best acts in Zydeco-Cajun Music from the Delta who will no doubt let their blues influence shine also. Should be the best festival yet! http://isletoncajunfestival.net/ read more

Don't do it! You pay to get in and have one strip of road with food- that you also stand in hour long lines for, that cost a fortune for mediocre food at best. Save your money and time! Too many people for such a small area. read more

Need to let whom ever know this was a horrendous event this year. Paid $23 for online tickets and it said parking will be $10, well when we arrived the parking was $20 and a half mile walk to the event. Parking cars with hot catalytic converters in grass fields is inviting disaster. just to walk thru the gates and park I was now at $90. $90 for the privelge to buy fair vendor food. Nothing else to see we got in line to get Crawfish at 12. At 5pm we finally purchased them from the one and only Crawdad there. They were $25 a pound and were not clean. There was not enough room for the amount of people for this one street. The drink ticket ordeal was ridiculous. Every trash can was overflowing ans was on the ground around them. Security was a joke, saw people jumping out of cars up on 160 and coming down the hill. We used to go religiously back inthe 80's, the last time was when they started charging. Well won't be attending again. Rip me off once shame on Isleton, rip me off twice... never! read more

This was our first and last time going. What a horrible day! Worst family day ever. Read the other reviews. It's 100% accurate. That fact that I paid my hard earned money to be in this shetshow was absolute robbery! and drove my whole family three hours to go. I feel so awful I put my entire family through this miserable experience. It's not a crawdad festival. That's lies. It's just a food truck festival filled with pure misery and nothing crawdad about it. I literally thought we were going to have the time of our lives. We waisted 4 hours, got zero crawdads, spent the entire time in lines, left starving, my children were crying, even my teenager burst into tears of frustration and disappointment. We attempted to salvage what was left of the day by driving over to Suisun City to enjoy the cool air on the waterfront and getting some dinner at a lovely Greek restaurant. We left our home at 8am and got home at 9pm. Here's a synopsis of our day: 3 hrs driving to Isleton. 90 minutes stuck in traffic to get a half mile. 15 minutes to park. 15 minutes to walk to the event. 3 hours standing in lines in the hot sun with nowhere to sit down attempting unsuccessfully to get crawdads. Leaving, the whole family in tears and me very pissed off. 45 minutes to Suisun City. 45 minutes in Suisun City to eat. 1 hour walking around the Suisun City waterfront and kids playing on the playground. 3 hour drive home. Fyi, we bought entry tickets and parking pass online weeks ago and paid $70 total plus a whole tank of gas, about $125, about $200 total, for a round trip to the "crawdad festival" for absolutely nothing but the most miserable day imaginable and zero crawdads. We got absolutely nothing for our money. Nothing. And I could hear lots of people complaining that when they actually successfully got crawdads from the only place selling them, that the crawdads tasted like sheet! Everyone was grumbling that they waited 3 hours for shety tasting crawdads, and they were raped for $25 for one pound of shety tasting crawdads, which as far as actual edible parts of a crawdad, that's like a few ounces of meat and everyone said it was gross! What an outrage! Refund the ticket and parking pass money to all the attendees you robbers and thieves! How dare you! Zero stars! In fact, negative stars. They owe me stars! read more

Very disappointed in this festival. The parking was a joke. Very little handicap parking. When you did find a place, it was a long walk to the festival. No signs to let people know where to check in if prepaid. They said they had shuttles, (golf carts), with no signs or anyone who really knew anything about them. When we finally got there, it was crowded, as we expected even when we went early. There was ONLY ONE eating place that had real CRAWDADS. AND THE LINE WENT FOREVER. There was other food places that had BBQ, shrimp, alligator, etc. But only ONE that had crawdads. This is a CRAWDAD FESTIVAL. The seating was limited. I know it said you could bring chairs, but since we had to hike in we didn't do it. The info on line said no pets unless they were service dogs, but yet I saw alot of regular dogs there. And the heat on their feet had to be uncomfortable. Not impressed. I realize that they hasn't happened for a few years, but really. Its a CRAWDAD FESTIVAL. This will be the first and last time we will be going to this festival. I have always wanted to go, but was really disappointed in this. There need to be ALOT of thought for next year. Maybe more than 1 area to buy crawdads. More different dishes with crawdad (not just crawdad fries). More area to buy alcohol tickets. And more interesting shops with Crawdad related items. I don't need leaf guards, no mobile phones (since my phone company was there, I thought about asking them why I didn't have good cell service. I really hope you do better organizing for next year. Maybe devide it into parking, food menus, sitting and novelties. Good luck read more

Isleton was beautiful...who knew there was a bayou-like swamp town so close to home. I went with high hopes for Louisiana type food, I left disappointed. Overall, I'd go again---great music and people watching. If you ask my tween, this was the perfect day. Why? Oh because (without warning) some cougar flashed some random guys to earn some mardi gras beads. The scary part is I would have never known had my son not exclaimed to me "MOM, THAT LADY JUST SHOWED HER THINGS AND THEY BOTH HAD EARRINGS" Flippin' Guhhhreat....thanks lady. read more

Way over priced food! Plus $25 per person to get in! No way! The traffic was backed up all the way across Bouldin Island to Tower Park! No thanks! It was out in the middle of nowhere; not in town where all the businesses are located. It use to be fun to shop in downtown during the Crawdad Festival. We will start going back when it is moved back to town and set the price back to $5 read more

Absolutely the biggest mess I've been into in a long time. We arrived in the area at 10:30 AM. Spent two hours in traffic at a dead stop. We ended up parking on the levee and walking a mile and a half to the event. The event had one parking lot open with one parking attendant. No law-enforcement or anyone to help direct traffic at stop signs or to keep traffic moving. The event was held on the downtown street. Check in had a line a couple hundred feet long and was very unorganized. The towns main street had vendors along the parking area which made the street way too narrow and could not hold the amount of people/vendors that were at the event. You could not walk down the street without bumping shoulders/turning sideways with people. I question the Isleton fire department or the county fire department because there's no way this event was safe or met fire code with the amount of people and limited egress at this event. The food lines were extremely long, to get alcohol you had to go get tickets in the middle of the event and then try to get back to the vendor selling beer located at the other end, The crawfish line was close to probably a mile long and they ran out of crawfish very early. I am not sure why they didn't have multiple vendors selling crawfish. I waited 20 years to go to this event and it was a complete disaster. This event would be great if it took place at a park and has law enforcement directing traffic and plenty of parking. We traveled close to 80 miles with eight people went into the event and left within 45 minutes because it was such a mess and we weren't alone so many people were upset and leaving. This event needs a 100% overhaul before we will ever think about attending again. read more

Formerly the crawdad festival, the cajun festival this year was the best one yet! There was a mechanical bull and line dancing, which is western, not cajun, but never the less, people were having a ball! There were also a couple of good bands, a dunk tank, and a carnival area. The selection of food was unbelievable. What a spread! Authentic cajun dishes galore, and tons of other good eats. Not crappy carnival food. My one gripe is that they charged an entry fee. This yearly celebration in Isleton has been out of commission for a few years, so I was so glad to see it make a comeback. read more

What the heck? I drove over 2 hours to see my dad because he wanted to attend this festival to celebrate Father's Day since it has been a regular thing over the years apparently. I think it was another hour to drive to both Isleton and the location some google search results gave me at some winery in Lodi. There was nothing at either location. One of the "official" website links brought me to some weird Japanese website that stole the domain I guess, and the Isleton city website didn't give me much viable information either. A site was updated yesterday and gave information from the 2015 description and I thought maybe it was an edit mistake so I gave it a chance. I tried finding information on google and Facebook and it wasn't really clear because some sources would say it was happening this year. So is it not happening this year or what? Terrible organization if it is. And if it is canceled, thats a bad move to not announce so. Guess I'll just go to Boiling Crab and play some blues on Spotify... My dad was super bummed and that makes me so mad! read more

What a ripoff! The fine folks of Isleton started charging a couple years ago. This year, the gate fee was $15.00! When we got in, we realized the whole festival was a line of cheesy vendors on the main street. There used to be a side street that had vendors and at the end of the street was the carnival (midway). That is all gone and now there are just a few vendors ripping people off for crappy tourist items. I really loved the old crawdad festival, but this new thing (what ever they call it) just has greed written all over it. Save a bunch of money, buy a couple pounds of crawdads at your local retailer and have a good time with your own boil. I wish I could say the festival was great, but I would definitely be lying! read more