Louisiana Crawfish Festival

What Louisiana Crawfish Festival does

The Louisiana Crawfish Festival is a community fundraising event operated by the Louisiana Crawfish Fest Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit (Tax ID 83-4655676) founded in 1975 by Knights of Columbus Rummel Council 5747. Held annually over a four-day weekend (March 26-29, 2026 for the 51st edition) at the Frederick Sigur Center in Chalmette, Louisiana, the festival serves local residents of St. Bernard Parish and surrounding areas with crawfish and seafood cuisine, live music entertainment, carnival rides, food and craft vendors, and a Miss/Teen pageant. Since reestablishing after Hurricane Katrina in 2007, the festival has donated over $2 million to community causes and contributes more than $100,000 annually to local churches, schools, health services, and charitable initiatives.

The festival's revenue model is multi-stream and transaction-based: paid admission on most festival days (Thursday is free), carnival ride wristbands priced at $20-$30 per day provided by partner Mitchell Brothers Amusement, vendor booth fees from over 30 food vendors and 15-20 craft vendors, a tiered sponsorship program ranging from $100 (St. Bernard Parish Business) to $20,000 (Presenting Sponsor), pageant entry fees of $80-$100, and year-round merchandise sales via an online e-commerce store. There is no proprietary technology stack; operations rely on a Wix-hosted website, Eventbrite for online ticketing, and standard social channels (Facebook and Instagram) for marketing and attendee engagement.

Distribution is anchored at the physical festival grounds in Chalmette, with online ticketing and merchandise channels extending the brand beyond the four-day window. The organization is led by an 18-member volunteer board including President Terry Gutierrez Jr., Chairman Jeff Caruso, Vice President Cisco Gonzales Jr., Secretary Dan McGovern, and Treasurer Robert Turner. The festival has won the Louisiana Association of Fairs & Festivals 'Festival of the Year' award in 2022, 2023, and 2025. The entity is structured as a private, non-listed non-profit serving a single geographic market (Louisiana) with no plan for geographic expansion, M&A activity, or capital-raising events disclosed.

Name

Louisiana Crawfish Festival

Legal name

Louisiana Crawfish Fest Foundation

Website

https://louisianacrawfishfestival.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1975

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Louisiana Crawfish Festival is a 501(c)(3) community festival operated by the Louisiana Crawfish Fest Foundation, held annually in Chalmette, Louisiana since 1975 to raise funds for Knights of Columbus charitable initiatives, serving St. Bernard Parish residents with crawfish cuisine, carnival rides, vendors, live entertainment, and a pageant.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Festival Events

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Food, Drink & Culinary Community Festivals (Community-Led) (MPAGAEAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Food Festivals & Culinary Events (Ticketed Tastings, Pop-ups) (THAJAGAL), Food, Wine & Beverage Festivals/Expos (MPAGAFAE), Community Parades, Carnivals & Street Fairs (MPAGAEAE)

Keywords

• Community festival events
• Seafood festival celebrations
• Carnival ride services
• Festival merchandise sales
• Event sponsorship programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Chalmette

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain, Personnel, Others

Revenue model

1. Festival Admission: Entry fees for festival attendees. Thursday admission is free; other days require paid entry. Discounts available for military, first responders (free with ID), teachers (Friday free), and children 4ft and under on Saturday/Sunday.
2. Carnival Rides: Carnival rides provided by Mitchell Brothers Amusement with ride wristband pricing ranging from $20-$30 depending on day.
3. Food & Craft Vendors: Festival hosts over 30 food vendors and 15-20 craft vendors annually. Vendors pay fees to participate and sell food and merchandise to attendees.
4. Sponsorships: Multiple sponsorship tiers from $100 (St. Bernard Business) to $20,000 (Presenting Sponsor). Includes fence, bar, band, entrance, stage, and presenting sponsorships.
5. Merchandise Sales: Festival merchandise including t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, koozies, posters, pins, tumblers, jackets, bags sold through online e-commerce store.
6. Pageant Entry Fees: Miss/Teen pageant participants pay entry fees: $80 for Teen division (ages 14-16) and $100 for Miss division (ages 17-23).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

The Louisiana Crawfish Festival is an annual multi-day community festival held at the Frederick Sigur Center in Chalmette, Louisiana, featuring crawfish and seafood cuisine from 30+ food vendors, 25+ carnival rides, live music entertainment, a vendor marketplace, and a Miss/Teen pageant competition. Operated by the Louisiana Crawfish Fest Foundation (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit), the festival also runs an online merchandise store selling apparel, headwear, drinkware, and commemorative items, and offers tiered sponsorship packages for local businesses.

Product overview

The Louisiana Crawfish Festival is an annual community festival organized by the Louisiana Crawfish Fest Foundation (a non-profit 501 C (3) organization) held at the Frederick Sigur Center in Chalmette, Louisiana. The festival's product and service portfolio consists of festival merchandise (apparel, headwear, drinkware, accessories, and commemorative items), event ticketing and admission, sponsorship packages at various price points ($100-$20,000), carnival rides provided by Mitchell Brothers Amusement, food and craft vendor services, and a Miss/Teen pageant competition. The core offering centers on the annual multi-day festival event featuring live entertainment, crawfish and seafood dishes, carnival rides, and community celebration. Merchandise includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, hats, koozies, tumblers, posters, pins, flags, and bags. Sponsorship tiers range from $100 St. Bernard Parish Business Sponsor to $20,000 Presenting Sponsor, with intermediate levels for fence, bar, band, entrance, and stage sponsorship.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Festival Tickets & Admission

Quantifiable outcome

• Donated over $2 million to community since 2007, with over $100,000 per year going to local churches, schools, health services, and charitable initiatives.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and key.

• Knights of Columbus Rummel Council 5747coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1975The founding organization of the Louisiana Crawfish Festival. In 1975, the Knights of Columbus Rummel Council 5747 created the festival as a community fundraiser. The festival remains the main fundraiser for the council, enabling them to donate over $100,000 per year to community initiatives.
• Louisiana Association of Fairs & Festivals (LAFF)minorOthersState-level industry association that recognized the Louisiana Crawfish Festival as 'Festival of the Year' for 2022, 2023, and 2025.
• Mitchell Brothers AmusementkeyOthersProvides over 25 carnival rides and midway games for the festival annually.
• Knights of Columbus Ladies AuxiliarycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner organization supporting the festival alongside Knights of Columbus Rummel Council 5747. Royalty pageant winners promote both organizations.
• St. Bernard Tourist CommissionminorOthersLocal tourism organization referenced for visitor lodging information near the festival grounds.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Gonzales Jambalaya Festival: Mid-sized Louisiana community festival centered on a signature local dish, with carnival rides, pageant, sponsorships, and food/craft vendors. Highly analogous operating model and target demographic to the Louisiana Crawfish Festival.
• Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival: Louisiana's other premier crawfish-themed community festival. Directly comparable in culinary focus (crawfish), regional audience, multi-day format, food vendors, live music, and carnival attractions — making it the closest head-to-head competitor for attendees and sponsors.
• Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival: Long-running Louisiana agricultural/food community festival with a similar model: family-focused event with food vendors, pageants, carnival rides, and parade components. Comparable scale, demographics, and revenue mix (admission, sponsorships, vendors).

Regional players

• Festival International de Louisiane: Major annual cultural festival in Lafayette, Louisiana featuring food vendors, live music, and community celebration. Comparable in cultural-community positioning and nonprofit sponsorship-driven model, though focused on Francophone heritage rather than crawfish.
• Abbeville Vermilion Festival: Regional Louisiana festival offering food, music, carnival rides, and family entertainment with similar nonprofit/community organizational structure. Comparable in scale and target audience though operating in a different sub-region of Louisiana.

Broad incumbents

• New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival: The dominant large-scale Louisiana cultural festival. Overlaps heavily in live music programming, food vendors, cultural celebration, and Louisiana-themed cuisine, but operates at a vastly larger scale with national draw and professional management.
• French Quarter Festival: Large free-admission New Orleans festival with extensive food and craft vendor programming, multiple music stages, and nonprofit governance. Comparable in vendor-driven economics and Louisiana regional audience, though materially larger in scale.

Others

• Knights of Columbus: National Catholic fraternal organization whose Rummel Council 5747 founded and still operates the Louisiana Crawfish Festival. Relevant organizational/parent context rather than a competing operator.
• Louisiana Association of Fairs & Festivals (LAFF): State-level industry association that has awarded the Louisiana Crawfish Festival 'Festival of the Year' in 2022, 2023, and 2025. Relevant ecosystem context for benchmarking against peer festivals.
• Mitchell Brothers Amusement: Carnival ride operator that supplies the Louisiana Crawfish Festival's 25+ rides. A key ecosystem partner and relevant comparable for understanding the midway economics, but not a competing festival organizer.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/louisianacrawfishfestival
• Instagraminstagram.com/lacrawfishfest
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/louisiana-crawfish-festival

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles18 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Louisiana Crawfish Festival