CAJUN INFLUENCE
CrawDaddy Blues Fest marks 10 years of fun
CrawDaddy Blues Fest celebrates a decade this weekend in Madrid.
The festival offers plenty of Cajun eats and treats to fill up your belly with crawfish, shrimp, gumbo, boudin and more. There will be fresh-squeezed Hurricanes to gulp it all down. The festival was inspired by Mine Shaft Tavern owner Lori Lindsey’s upbringing. Lindsey, who grew up in southeastern Texas, was surrounded by plenty of Cajun influence.
“We’ve been doing it for 10 years and started it when we bought the Mine Shaft Tavern,” Lindsey said. “I have a background in Cajun food being that I grew up in Cajun country. I grew up in southeast Texas. We love the food and wanted to bring it to New Mexico. We brought it to New Mexico and we also wanted to showcase local blues in there. It was kind of the beginning of a tradition where you could get great food, great drink and get live music.”
Lindsey’s Texas family is bringing up the crawfish it buys from Texas rice farmers who breed crawfish as an off-season crop, Lindsey said. There also will be plenty of shrimp available, which will be prepared in several ways, including fried shrimp and coconut shrimp. There will be meat options for carnivores and okra for vegetarians. The festival was such a success last year that the Mine Shaft had to expand its kitchen. Last year, between 1,200 to 1,500 turned out per day.
“I think the food experience is diversified for it being a crawfish boil,” Lindsey said. “There are a lot of other things that people can get, brisket, barbecue ribs and the Mine Shaft will have different specialties. One of the other things we do also are green chile crab cakes.”
On top of tons of food there will be a plethora of live music on three different stages. There are about 20 bands performing during the two-day, rain or shine event. The main stage is located under the tented amphitheater, with another stage at the Mine Shaft Cantina, formerly known as The Deck.