By: Noah Kehlenbach
Photo by Melanie Richards
This year’s Crawfish Boil marked the 39th year the event has been held at Willow/Lusher. Two years ago, the big event was canceled due to COVID lockdown, and last year it was moved from its original early spring date to May when temps were uncomfortably high, so this year’s boil at its usual time in March was highly anticipated.
This year, the boil officially kicked off at 11:00 a.m. with a performance from the Willow jazz band, which played seven songs, including All of Me, Little Sunflower, and Work Song. The stage continued to be used throughout the rest of the day, showcasing different art forms and performers of all levels from all campuses over the course of seven hours.
Unlike the Block Party which happened earlier this year, the Crawfish Boil was held both in the quad and on Nashville. This gave everybody the opportunity to spread out rather than everybody packing into just the quad, although it did make it harder to catch all the performers on stage with two locations to graze between. Now that we’re out of the COVID phase, the crawfish boil can be held outside of the quad on Nashville again with police to prevent traffic on the pedestrianized street. This allows for more space to put stands and booths for students to showcase what they’re learning and the progress they’ve made on projects and in the arts during the school year.
“I really like all of the extra space that we get when the school uses Nashville for the Crawfish Boil,” said sophomore Ronan Theall. “I think it’s great that we get so much space to put booths for activities and food, and I think it also encourages more people to come when they see the street is blocked off.”
During the Crawfish Boil, there were multiple food options to choose from. Even though the lines were long, the food was worth the wait. The star, of course, was boiled crawfish, but there were also cheeseburgers, quesadillas, pizzas, crepes, sno-balls, cotton candy, and baked goods, among other choices.
As for games and activities, there was a rock-climbing wall, multiple inflatables, and games such as darts, plinko, toilet bowl fishing, and crawfish and duck tubs to pick the highest number or a certain color.
For winning, participants got tickets to cash in at the toy stand.
“This being my first Willow Crawfish Boil,” Willow 8th grader Charlie Kehlenbach said, “I was very impressed with how many people showed up. I really didn’t expect it. It felt like the quad was packed. It showed just how important this event is to this community! The crawfish boil was also free to enter, which encouraged people to show up and partake in the festivities.”
Enough people came that the crawfish were sold out even before 2:30! The party ended at around 6:30 with all of the arts having showcased their work. Overall, this year’s crawfish boil was a huge hit that showed we’ve bounced back from the past few years in full form.
