When Flavorpill announced that the Crawfish Festival in New Jersey next weekend, we cleared our weekend and booked tickets for a getaway to the Garden State. With a large contingent of family members in Louisiana, we have have a direct access to the very best ettouffee and pecan pie recipes. But to have the authentic dishes brought to our neck of the woods by the Louisiana natives makes for an event not to be missed.

Cajun Eats 'n Beats - Crawfish Fest
What: Four tons of live crawfish are bound from Louisiana to New Jersey for this year's Crawfish Fest, a mini jazz-fest that combines hedonistic eating with music that could only have originated in the funky swamp of New Orleans.
When: Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3
Where: Sussex County Fairgrounds, 37 Plains Rd, Augusta, NJ, map
Travel: Catch a direct bus from Port Authority.
Fee: $30 / $25 advance, A two-day festival pass is $45.
Music: The four swinging (trom)bones of Bonerama and the stinging riffs of blues master Sonny Landreth set up headliners the New Orleans Social Club — pianist Henry Butler, the Meters' George Porter Jr and Leo Nocentelli, with Ivan Neville, and Raymond Weber. Lafayette's Cajun upstarts the Pine Leaf Boys will get you to the dance floor, and zydeco master Geno Delafose will keep you there, working off the beignets, jambalaya, po-boys, and boiled crawfish.

Sunday music: Day two of the fest features Dr. John, Cowboy Mouth, and Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen.