Thousands of people making there way into Breaux Bridge for the festival opens the door for local businesses to shine and reach new customers that will keep coming back. 

BREAUX BRIDGE, La. (KLFY)-- With over 30,000 people attending the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival, it means a big economic push for Breaux Bridge and the businesses in it. 

"When you bring in 30,000 or 40,000 people to a community of 8,500, they spend money here," Mark Bernard, Festival Association president, said. "So it inflates the economy for that month. You know, it's beneficial all in all, and hopefully that will continue for years to come."

Thousands of people making there way into Breaux Bridge for the festival opens the door for local businesses to shine and reach new customers that will keep coming back. 

One of these businesses is Crazy 'Bout Crawfish located just one mile down the road from the festival grounds. 

"We look forward to it," Megan Buckner, owner of Crazy 'Bout Crawfish, said. "Every year we plan for it. We're so excited. It brings a lot of business locals and the travelers people off the interstate. A lot of people that that haven't been here before. And all they want to experience is good food, good atmosphere and nice Cajun fun. So we're excited to have them all over here."

With all the excitment for crawfish this weekend Crazy 'Bout Crawfish starts boiling at 10 a.m. so folks can enjoy their Crawfish as soon as the craving hits. 

"We might do some all you could eat, so we might drop down the prices, run some specials we want to get everybody into, enjoy the crawfish, because that's what this is all about is crawfish," Buckner said. "Boiled crawfish, crawfish cornbread, crawfish boulettes, crawfish etoufee, anything crawfish is what this weekend is about. We're the crawfish capital of the world. So this is where you come to."

Don't worry Acadiana, they got plenty of crawfish to go around for anyone that comes in. 

"On our wall that shows you put a pan for where you're from, from all over the world," Buckner said. "And when I tell you, they come from Canada, France, Germany, Australia, every time that they come and experience boiled crawfish, we'll sit there and we'll teach them how to peel this off their hands, pinch the tails and get all the flavors out. Sometimes we'll bring them a live crawfish and they freak out because they've never seen a live crawfish before."

"It's a blessing and we enjoy the culture that we have and we want to share it with the rest of the world," Bernard said.

News 10 spoke to those close to the crawfish lifestyle about the future of the industry, and they're confident everything is going to be alright. 

"So we were really worried at the beginning of the year because it started off rough," Buckner said. "They were expensive and you couldn't find them anywhere. But it's starting to get really better and we think we're going to have plenty enough crawfish."

The beginning of crawfish season lead to concern from people all over Acadiana as prices skyrocketed and harvests were off to a late start. Bernard said the industry has been able to bounce back just in time for festival. 

"The interest itself is just like a lot of other things," Bernard said. "You have cycles, you have nature throws, you have curve game. The drought was the main cause of the issue this year. Now, when we finally started getting water, it only turned around. Right now we are on a good track."

As festival kicks off, with plenty of crawfish to go around, Bernard remains confident the evolving crawfish industry will continue to survive and keep the over 60-year-old tradition of the crawfish festival alive for another 60 years. 

"Every 10 years or so, the oil industry paper frack, every so often the crawfish, then they would take a dip," Bernard said. "Not a crab like that at all. You. But it is parallel to any other business that experiences difficulties due to nature. You know, it's this is more nature thing and you can't control nature. You have to learn to work with it and live with it, you know?"

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