{"id":197776,"date":"2026-03-19T13:45:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197776\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:45:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:45:44","slug":"rotarians-set-for-16th-annual-crawfish-festival-in-riverview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/197776\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotarians set for 16th Annual Crawfish Festival in Riverview"},"content":{"rendered":"

By LINDA CHION KENNEY
linda@observernews.net<\/p>\n

Vendors, volunteers, sponsors and advance food orders are \u201chighly encouraged\u201d for the 16th annual Crawfish Festival in Riverview, with proceeds benefiting local and global community charities supported by the FishHawk-Riverview Rotary Club.
That\u2019s the word from Rotarian Michael Broussard, a seasoned chef, whose prior restaurant career made use of the skills he honed as a child learning to cook in his family\u2019s kitchen. Also, important to note, \u201cI worked at a family restaurant in Louisiana, and I loved the way the owner cooked his crawfish,\u201d Broussard said. \u201cHe steamed the crawfish instead of boiling them, which locks in the juices, and that\u2019s the way we cook them at the festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Linda Chion Kenney photo
Sixth-grader Jacob Faulkner, dressed in a crawfish costume, attends the FishHawk-Riverview Rotary Club meeting March 16, where the 16th Annual Crawfish Festival was discussed.<\/p>\n

Set again for its presentation in the neotraditional Winthrop community, the festival is scheduled for Saturday, April 25, rain or shine, off the southeast corner of Bloomingdale Avenue and Providence Road. Boxes of fresh crawfish, scheduled to arrive 4 a.m. from Abbeville, La., presents a win-win for crawfish lovers, and for the Rotarian mission to support charities and nonprofits aligned with its mission. Rain or shine, the five-hour event kicks off at 11, with free admission, live music, family friendly activities and vendor booths (additional food options, crafts and more).
The festival is one of two annual signature events for the club, which presents in December the Alafia Lighted Boat Parade, at the Riverview Park and Civic Center, at 11020 Park Drive. It\u2019s the festival, however, that raises significant funds for distribution through the FishHawk-Riverview Rotary Club Foundation, which through the festival raised roughly $75,000 over the past two years alone. This year\u2019s event is expected to raise another $40,000, which makes good on the pact Broussard made with Rotarian Elijah Heath more than 16 years ago.
\u201cElijah Heath, who encouraged me to join Rotary, wanted to come up with a fundraiser for the club and this is what we decided to do,\u201d Broussard said. \u201cElijah, who knew I was from Louisiana, said, \u2018What do you think about a crawfish festival?\u2019 From there, it took on a life of its own.\u201d
Witnessing the growth of the festival over the years is Rotarian Joe Nichols, the club\u2019s president, who joined the club five years after he went to his first festival eight years ago. \u201cI lived in New Orleans and I can tell you, the food is no better there than here at the festival,\u201d Nichols said. \u201cThe crawfish is authentic, I love the music, the camaraderie is great, and there\u2019s a variety of different vendors and things you can buy and participate in, including a terrific kid\u2019s zone with animals to pet, games, face-painting and a bounce house.\u201d
The festival\u2019s main sponsor, again, is Chris Ligori and Associates, injury attorneys. Sought now are additional sponsors, vendors and volunteers, as well as advance orders for crawfish and other dining options, all of which is noted online at www.luvcrawfish.com\/. The Crawfish Family Pack, for example, includes two Cajun style crawfish dinners with corn and potato, plus $30 in Crawfish Cash for more food and beverage options. The cost for a single crawfish meal (approximately 2<\/p>\n

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Joe Nichols photo
The main draw at the crawfish festival held annually by the FishHawk-Riverview Rotary Club<\/p>\n

pounds) is $25, including corn on the cob and red potatoes. The a la carte menu includes Broussard\u2019s Dirty Rice, pulled pork sandwich, chicken and sausage gumbo, Crawfish Etouffee, Don\u2019s Smoked Fish Spread with Crackers, red beans and rice, funnel cakes, hamburgers and more. Drink offerings include bottled water, craft beer and cider, Hurricanes, Sangria and more.
For sure, the major draw for near and far visitors is the crawfish. \u201cThe number of people who look forward to the Crawfish Festival every year is amazing,\u201d said Rotarian Christopher Jones, who has chaired the festival for years. \u201cWe hear from people throughout the year asking when the festival is going to be, and we\u2019ve had people from Miami and out of state come to the festival.\u201d
In the end, \u201cit\u2019s all about the timing,\u201d said Jones, a self-proclaimed \u201cseafood guy\u201d from Maryland, who since his Rotarian days has added crawfish to his love for crabs and shrimp. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of seafood festivals and rib festivals, but not a lot of crawfish festivals. The fact that we have someone who was raised in the area, who can arrange to get fresh crawfish from the bayou, which literally shows up the morning of the festival at 4 a.m., that\u2019s the draw.\u201d
Moreover, Jones said, 100 percent of the money raised supports local and global initiatives aligned with the Rotary Club\u2019s mission. Requests for donations come exclusively through active members and are awarded based on alignment with Rotary\u2019s mission to alleviate poverty, illiteracy, hunger and disease.
According to club members, the majority of funds raised are awarded locally, and last year that benefited The Three B\u2019s Ministry, MacDonald Training Center, West Florida Foster Care Services, Gibsonton Elementary School Food Pantry, Florida Society of Clinical Oncology, Feeding Tampa Bay, Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, Tampa Westchase Rotary U.S. Hunger Food<\/p>\n

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Joe Nichols photo
Joe Nichols, president of the FishHawk-Riverview Rotary Club, with attorney Chris Ligori, presenting sponsor for the annual crawfish festival<\/p>\n

Packing Program and Hillsborough County Public Schools Migrant Education Program. Global recipients included the Chispa Project in Honduras, and Honduras Compassionate Partners, and the El Ayudante Honduras Learning Center. Also, in Kenya, the Weiss Scholarship Foundation.
The club supports also Rotary\u2019s Camp Florida, college scholarships for graduating seniors, the Newsome High School Interact Club, Rotary International\u2019s Polio Plus (End Polio Now) initiative and delegate sponsorships to attend Rotary\u2019s Seminar for Tomorrow\u2019s Leaders (S4TL).
For more on club membership and activities, visit www.FishHawkRiverviewRotary.org\/. For festival orders, information and volunteer and sponsorship opportunities, visit www.luvcrawfish.com\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By LINDA CHION KENNEYlinda@observernews.net Vendors, volunteers, sponsors and advance food orders are \u201chighly encouraged\u201d for the 16th annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-197776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}