Index

Issue #25 Summerfests - 2005

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Summer Festivals abound in Arizona, despite the heat!

With near record temperatures going in the triple digits, Arizonans still manage to hold community parties throughout the sizzling summertime! Many, like the Crawdad Festival recently held in Camp Verde, are held in the evening hours when the sun is not so intense. A lot depends on the type of festival being held, though, and the Crawdad Festival is more or less an evening meal type of thing anyway.

The Crawdad Festival was pure Cajun cooking, cowboy style. Hundreds of folks from all over the state came to enjoy the food and frolic: a kid's carnival, authentic square-dancing, full service beer garden, Cajun spelling bee, live Cajun music, traditional Cajun cuisine, crawdad races, and a crawdad eating contest. Where, other then in the bayous around New Orleans could you expect to be eating boiled crawfish, jambalaya, and etouffee? Where indeed but in Camp Verde!

The event boasted being one of the largest Mardi Gras style celebrations in Arizona, with beads, music and usual frivolity. I saw many women sporting lots of beads, but I didn't see if they earned them the way ladies in New Orleans usually do. The musicians played some great Jazz numbers, and not so Cajon, it seemed to me. The food? I don't know -- my Norwegian stomach wasn't up for the challenge.

Despite the slight differences between traditional Mardi Gras and this Verde Valley interpretation, everyone seemed to be having a great time eating and enjoying the festivities. Many more interesting events are scheduled for the summertime, and if you look at our main page and check out the Chamber of Commerce listings of all the towns in this area, you may come across an event or two you'd like to visit!

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