Hot time at Satchmo Summerfest

Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns

Last week was one the hottest festivals of the year, to my mind, both in terms of music and weather.

Even as I look forward every year to Satchmo, the first week in August, I have a secret dread because I know the temperature will be sweltering. The event takes place at the Old U.S. Mint, which has been refurbished as a museum. It has a shady side and a sunny side. Obviously, people have gathered under the shade of oak trees until this year when a tent was put up on the French Market side. Still, that blocked some of the minimal breeze.

The lineup is fabulous, assuming you are a fan of traditional jazz, so it is worth sweating while taking periodic breaks to look at old coins and scales inside the museum in order to prevent swooning. Of course, there are always show-offs who swing dance just to prove they are naturally cool and can can't be stopped by a little heat and humidity.

Meschiya Lake, backed up by the Little Big Horns, crooned tunes from the 1930s and '40s before air conditioning was even invented. "Be sure to hydrate," she said. "In between alcoholic beverages."

There were long lines for icy cocktails as well as fruit ice teas and freshly squeezed lemonaide.

Allen Toussaint came out looking like a prince in a beaded white jacket and bowing to the crowds, even those of us hovering outside the wrought iron fence. He proceeded to play the R&B music for which he is famous.

Though not a fan of big oil companies, I will give a special shout-out to Chevron, which helped underwrite this marginally profitable event and even paid for unlimited free pedicabs all weekend - helping both festival-goers and pedicab cyclists.

Crawfish fest draws record crowd

120,000 visited event in Chalmette
Times-Picayune, St. Bernard bureau

Louisiana Crawfish Festival organizers say the four-day event topped expectations and previous year numbers, bringing in more than 120,000 visitors.

"This was an amazing weekend, the largest attendance in history," Cisco Gonzales, the festival's chairman, said on Monday.

Fred Billiot, a spokesman for the festival, said about 22,000 pounds of crawfish were sold between Thursday and Sunday.

Gonzales has said that in an average year 35,000 to 40,000 pounds are sold, but he had anticipated a 15,000-pound drop in sales because of this year's high cost of mudbugs.

The boiled crustacean sold for about $4 a pound, nearly a dollar higher than in past years.

Billiot said about 100,000 people attended last year.

Crawfish prices are up from this time last year; supply is down as a fall draught and cold winter killed some critters and slowed the growth of others.

Since 1975, the Chalmette festival has traditionally kicked off the crawfish festival season. More information is available at louisianacrawfishfestival.com or on the festival's Facebook page.