AUGUSTA, NJ (05/13/2015)(readMedia)-- Each year, the Sussex County Fair Grounds in northwest New Jersey happily becomes home to a long weekend's worth of Louisiana culture with Baton Rouge native Michael Arnone's Crawfish Festival. The music, the atmosphere, the food and the setting have found complete harmony, providing fans an unforgettable experience. The festival has been compared to a mini Jazz Fest, combining the best Louisiana music acts with a smorgasbord of mouthwatering Louisiana food. Dishes like catfish or shrimp and oyster Po Boys, boiled crawfish, crawfish etouffee and grilled alligator sausage are not easy to come by in one place in the northeast. But at this festival they are featured in booth after booth at this annual gathering of fans of Louisiana culture. Arnone over see's most of the food booths, but has brought in friends to round out the menu.

The festival has been the long time work of Michael Arnone, a Louisiana native and resident that took a chance back in the mid 1980's. "I am an IBEW union electrician. In the mid 80's there wasn't much work at that time in Louisiana, oil was $20 a barrel and it affected everyone" Arnone said. "A New Jersey union representative from called our Local and said there was plenty of work in New Jersey. I can't say I really knew exactly where New Jersey was, but I needed work and drove up in October of 1985." By 1988 Arnone was getting homesick for some of the comforts of home and decided that a spring time crawfish boil with some music might be just what he needed. Arnone remembers seeing an ad at a local restaurant of Jambalaya served over rice and wondered how that must taste. Boiled shrimp was just that, boiled with no seasoning. This was about the time the blackening craze had hit. Arnone had never heard of blackening until he was 1,300 miles from home.

So, on May 20, 1989 he flew in 300lbs of crawfish and his parents cooked a big pot of Pork Sausage and Chicken Jambalaya. Arnone put a little ad in the Good Cajun Times, a publication designed for Louisiana expatriates, and he was off and running. He then rented a small pavilion at a private recreational park in Riverdale, hired two bands, Peach Fish Pie and Bayou Midnight and had 70 people attend. "Everybody had such a good time, it felt like home," Arnone said. "A lot of those folks were strangers but left as friends, many of them still attend the festival".

Arnone decided to continue doing the party and attendance doubled or tripled each year, almost entirely by word of mouth, growing big enough to become a festival and force a move to the Waterloo Village Concert Field in 1995. By 2001 the festival found a more suitable home at the130 acre Sussex County Fair Grounds in Augusta, New Jersey.

Arnone moved back to Louisiana in 2000 but said "By that point so many people considered it their summer kick off and it brought so much joy I couldn't stop doing it." The festival evolved from two bands on a couple of risers to 23 bands on four stages. Arnone has brought the best that Louisiana culture has to offer, from the great food, to Aaron Neville, Dr. John, The Funky Meters, Marcia Ball, Terrance Simien as well as Mardi Gras Indian acts, all in a relaxed family friendly environment.

This year's festival runs June 3-5 There are a great variety of ways in which you can enjoy the fun, from RV or rough camping to simply coming down for the day on Saturday or Sunday. This festival is a real treat and a fabulous taste of Louisiana culture. Arnone says, "The festival still has the feel of a backyard block party, like back home, just the block has gotten bigger."

Visit CrawfishFest.Com for more info. Interview Requests to Natashia Kruse kruse@ptd.net

Posted Wednesday May 13, 2015 at 06:03 am by Michael Arnone's Crawfish Fest
Last Updated Thursday January 21, 2016 at 03:32 pm