| Description: | From New Braunfels Crawfish Festival Website: Ben Jones loves music and crawfish, so he put the two together in 1999 as a way to thank clients of his trade and lifestyle magazines.
Over the years, the event grew out of hand.
While the 1,200-square-foot deck in his backyard facing the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels was the perfect stage for acts such as Bleu Edmondson and Mike McClure, the tour buses parked out front and shuttles ferrying upwards of 500 guests began putting a dent in the fun for Jones and his wife, attorney Gina Jones. My wife wanted our house back, Jones said.After he sold the business, they decided to stop throwing the parties. But after two years, the itch returned, and Jones decided to scratch it with Crawfest NB a public event at the Comal County Fairgrounds in 2014. The fun came back, along with unforeseen frustrations. Expecting 3,000-4,000 people with a bill including Kevin Fowler and Cory Morrow, some 8,000 showed up.
We ran out of crawfish. We had no idea it would be that kind of a crowd, Jones said. That first year was the most stressful of my entire life.
We had a football-field-long line for crawfish, and I had to tell the person in the middle of the line that there probably would not be any crawfish for him. It was a mess, but we knew then that this thing was going to be big. The next year Jones and his festival partner, Keith Morgan, worked out the problems, and Casey Donahew and Little Texas drew about 7,500 despite a downpour that morning.
For this years third annual Crawfest NB, he added a night Its going to be a huge crowd. Were expecting 10,000-plus with our predictions from presales and past years, Jones said. We bought 10,000 pounds of crawfish. But well run out. Those who want to make sure to get some mudbugs can purchase crawfish in advance online (two pounds for $15) with a guarantee the Crawfish Races all day Saturday benefiting Child Advocates of San Antonio; and the Battle of the Roux order will be there until 7 p.m., Jones said. Crawfest organizers also want to keep it family friendly, with a number of events on the grounds that also raise money for charities. They include the 5K Crawdaddy Dash at 8 a.m. Saturday, with money going to the New Braunfels Little League; gumbo cookoff that helps Kids Feeding Kid
Other events Saturday include the Splash Dogs jumping event; the Kid Zone with more rides; and a washer-tossing tournament at 1 p.m. Splash Dogs and Kid Zone also will be featured today. Why Crawfest is growing so fast I just dont know. Crawfish alone has an appeal, said Jones volunteers as the Director for the Hospitality and Visitors Association
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