Crawdad Fest celebrates 20 years
By Ty Walker, The Mountain Times
They came for the succulent shellfish and they stayed for the live music. Hundreds of crustacean lovers joined The Skyway Bar and Grill in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Crawdad Festival this summer.
The two-day event, which comes the third weekend of August each year, drew about 900 guests to the rustic shack on the mountain. For the rest of the year, The Skyway is well known for its tasty barbecue fare.
“The festival started at my mom and dad's house way before we bought The Skyway,” said Tracie Anderson, who owns the bar with husband Tom. “It was a family tradition that we moved to Skyway.”
It was more than 40 years ago that Tracie’s mom and dad started boiling crawdads at home.
A couple of decades later, Tracie and Tom brought the Crawdad Fest to The Skyway, where it could stretch its claws and open to the public.
“It went great,” Chef and The Skyway part owner Jason Hornor said. “We had a really good turnout. Saturday we had about 500 people and Sunday we had about 400 people show up. The weather was fantastic. Everything was perfect.”
About 300 pounds of crawdads were sold at the fest. They ran out of crawdads around 5:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. They might cook more for next year.
“The music was great,” Hornor said. “All the bands did a really good performance. “We were really excited about that.”
What originated as a summer tradition for family and friends has grown over the years into a major event on the mountain. Locals and tourists circled Aug. 15-16 on this year’s calendar for delicious crawdads and great live music.
Besides the main course of crawdads, fished straight from the Columbia River, the Skyway menu has expanded on the festival’s cajun theme, with gumbo, rice and beans, and po’boy sandwiches. Some enthusiasts wear bead necklaces and cajun costumes in keeping with a Mardi Gras spirit.
“It’s always exciting,” Hornor said. “The staff gets a little break from the everyday hustle and bustle of normal business.
“It’s fun to step outside the box for the weekend. We all have a good time.”
A diverse lineup of live music entertained the crowd, from the traditional bluegrass of Thunder Ridge to the funky rock and roll of the Quick & Easy Boys. Face painting and the fun games for kids added to the festive vibe.
Some people come back to the mountain every year just for the crawdad fest.
“We get families, singles, dates – everybody from everywhere comes out to the crawdad festival,” Hornor said.
Crawdads are small freshwater crustaceans, living in streams, lakes and rivers around the world. They cook in a rolling boil for 10 seconds. They look like mini lobsters and taste like lobsters, to which they are closely related.
“We start the boil early so it gets good and infused with flavors and we cook those crawdads to order,” Hornor said.
“We had people coming in their crawdad outfits” Hornor said. “It was a good time.
We moved the whole kitchen outside this year and it went off without a hitch. Previous years we had the kitchen inside and just the crawdad boil outside.”
Ten volunteers helped the regular employees at the festival this year for a total of 20 workers.
“All of our legs are tired,” Hornor said. “Everybody worked really hard. Our staff did the best crawdad fest yet as far as getting it done and making it go smoothly. Our staff really killed it.”