2 Sacramento-area crawdad festivals spotlight Cajun cuisine this Father's Day weekend
SACRAMENTO — The Cajun charm will be in the spotlight in the Sacramento region this Father's Day weekend.
Two Crawdad festivals kick off Saturday; one is the annual Crawdad festival in Isleton and the other is at Cal Expo in Sacramento.
In Isleton, vendors could be seen Friday afternoon setting up their tents in anticipation of a busy weekend.
Maggie Dixon, owner of Roscoe's BBQ and Lumpia in Elk Grove, is one of them
"I'm like, 'Oh, my god. I'm going to sell at the crawdad festival!' " Dixon said.
Her bright orange tent will be among more than 120 vendors gathering for the decades-old festival.
Sebastian Maldonado said it started in the late 1980s after Isleton became a sister city with Bowbridge, Louisiana.
"It's a community-based festival and always has been," Maldonado said.
Described as a family-friendly party, the festival features live music, a carnival and more than 15,000 pounds of crawfish.
The festival lands on the same weekend as the Crawdad Festival at Cal Expo, which has caused some confusion and discussion on who to go to. However, for Maldonado, he hopes people enjoy their time at either one.
"We don't really care. We don't really mind it. We're the original, so we're cool with it," Maldonado said.