LA Shrimp Fest: Celebration & Call to Action

The Louisiana Shrimp Festival & Shrimp Aid lands this weekend, October 18th and 19th, at the Broadside, and festival founder, coastal advocate, renowned chef and longtime Chefs Brigade collaborator and partner, Dana Honn, says there are plenty of reasons to attend. Some are driven by our collective need to celebrate after a long hot summer, while others point to preserving a culture and community that is quickly disappearing.

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“The Louisiana Shrimp Festival will have everything you expect from a great Louisiana festival–food, music and family,” says Honn, who is also a partner in the Broadside’s host restaurant Nikke Izakaya, which blends Japanese cultural traditions with Gulf seafood. “Plus, it has a reason and mission that we all should care about.”

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Honn is referring to the plight of Louisiana shrimpers and Gulf of Mexico fishing communities. Cheap, farm-raised, imported shrimp continue to flood the market driving down dock prices to unsustainable levels, forcing many local shrimpers out of business. In 2000, there were more than 11,000 shrimp vessels catching wild shrimp in our coastal waters, but that number has plummeted to around 2,900 vessels in just a quarter of a century. According to Shrimp Aid, the nonprofit that puts on the festival, what the public doesn’t realize is that there is plenty of shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico, and it is considered a much higher quality than farm-raised shrimp, which also have environmental and safety concerns.

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Those tasty Louisiana shrimp, however, will be on full display at the festival which will include food vendors and chefs preparing unique dishes featuring 100 percent Louisiana shrimp  from Waska, Rosedale, Greta’s Sushi, Mama Chan, Brothers 1 Love and many others. Plus, there will be numerous shrimpers outside selling their shrimp, so it might not be a bad idea to grab some fresh shrimp, bring it home and head back to the festival. 

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When you come back, consider wearing shrimp boots if you have them. Festival organizers are asking attendees to wear the boots if possible to honor our shrimpers, who are invited to attend the festival for free. Honn says an essential part of the festival includes a number of panels–featuring shrimpers, chefs, scientists, policymakers, academics, artists, and advocates from Louisiana and across the country.  Panelists will address critical issues such as what legislative action can be taken to protect shrimpers, how the industry and Louisiana fisheries can co-exist, and relating the personal stories of shrimpers, and their culture. 

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Music always plays a major role in any good Louisiana festival and the shrimp fest will feature local musicians including Sunpie & the Louisiana Hotspots, Honey Island Swamp Band, John Boutte, Kumasi Afrobeat and many more. Plus, there’s even a giant puppet show, “Little Shrimp & the Terrible Noise.”

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Tickets are affordably priced at just $17 with “pay-what-you-can” options available. With a rallying cry of SOS (Save Our Shrimpers), Honn wants the public to celebrate our coastal bounty, food, music and support our shrimpers before it’s too late.

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“Folks should come out because the challenge hasn’t changed for shrimpers,” says Honn. “If we wait any longer, there won’t be any shrimpers to save.”

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