Another year in the books for the long-running New Orleans style festival held at the Sussex County Fairgrounds in Augusta, NJ. Michael Arnone’s 26th Annual Crawfish Festival went off without a hitch. Even the rain couldn’t put a damper on the crowd as Dr. John and The Nite Trippers closed out the festival despite urgent precautions about the massive storm entering the region.
From fresh boiled crawdaddies to sweet New Orleans music, the festival may be in the middle of NJ farmland, but it’s just about as close to actual NOLA Jazz Fest as you’ll get up North!
Artists included New Orleans favorites George Porter and His Runnin’ Pardners, trumpet virtuoso Kermit Ruffins, Marc Broussard, John Gros (Papa Grows Funk), Honey Island Swamp Band and Anders Osborne.
Local NJ favorites From Good Homes also performed, featuring Railroad Earth’s Todd Sheaffer and Brooklyn’s Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds. NJ’s own John Ginty was at the helm of a Hammond B-3 organ to help out Anders Osborne, From Good Homes, and Marc Broussard during the weekend.
By Chris Hanna