Medina Lake Cajun Festival – serving up fun for 29 years
By Barbara Engel 
The lively sounds of Cajun music fill the air. As you walk a little farther, you hear the exciting sounds of a zydeco band. You see people dancing, smiling and laughing.
Heavenly aromas fill the air – gumbo, crawfish étouffée, crawfish pie, fried catfish, Cajun popcorn shrimp, red beans and rice, bread pudding with whiskey sauce and much more. You think, “I must be in Lafayette, Louisiana, or maybe I have just died and gone to heaven.”
No, you’re at the Medina Lake Cajun Festival, held annually in Lakehills on the fourth Saturday in September. The Medina Lake Betterment Association, Inc., a nonprofit civic organization, celebrates the culture of Louisiana’s Cajun country by re-creating a little bit of Louisiana – deep in the heart of Texas. The magic unfolds this year from 11:30 am to 10 pm, Saturday, Sept. 26.
This year marks the 29th annual Medina Lake Cajun Festival, born in 1981 as the brainchild of a New Orleans transplant, Bob Caswell.
At that time, foreclosure seemed imminent on the Lakehills Civic Center as money to pay the mortgage was scarce. A fundraiser was desperately needed to keep the doors open. Various ideas were discussed, including a chili cook-off, until a strange accent from the back of the room suggested, “Why don’t we try something different. How about a gumbo cook-off?”
No one could think of a better idea, so that September, the first “Great Gumbo Cook-Off” was bravely held. Now mind you, Cajun food was not the rage that it is now, and most Texans thought crawfish were fit only for fish bait. Paul Prudhomme had not really hit the scene yet, and Emeril Lagasse was probably still in diapers – or at least still in New York.
Nevertheless, enough people were intrigued to turn out and try the gumbo, and sufficient money was raised to pay the center’s mortgage for the entire year.
Each year, the event became more successful as volunteers began to cook Cajun food. Eventually, a few small Cajun bands were brought in. Arts, crafts and games were added, and more and more people attended the gumbo cook-off at Medina Lake. Wonder of wonders, some of them actually liked to eat crawfish!
But truthfully, more barbecued items than crawfish pies were sold in the earlier years.
In 1990, the name of the event was changed to the Medina Lake Cajun Festival to reflect the event’s expanded scope. Big-name, top-quality Cajun bands from Louisiana were recruited, and the volunteer Cajun cooks expanded the menu, sparing no effort or expense in its preparation. People descended on the Cajun food booths like hungry locusts, and the crawfish pies were sold out within hours.
Contestants in the “Great Gumbo Cook-Off” dished up thousands of servings. Amateur and professional cooks still vie for the title of chef supreme in their respective divisions, and the visitors are the winners as they sample this rich and mysterious Louisiana concoction.
This year’s festival promises to be the best ever, with four award-winning Cajun and zydeco bands from Louisiana on two stages.
To learn more about the Medina Lake Cajun Festival, visit www.cajunfestival-medinalake.com or call 830-751-3130.
The festival is located in Bandera County, 1.7 miles west of FM 1283 on Park Road 37, just 30 minutes from San Antonio. Free parking and free shuttle rides to and from the festival from the satellite parking lots are available. Admission is $10, with children 10 and under admitted free.
Laissez les bon temps rouler!
