6 months ago
ISLETON, CA - The city of Isleton has cancelled its annual Crawdad Festival this year. The event had been scheduled for June 19-21. It typically features crawdads - crayfish - prepared in all manner of ways, Cajun music and plenty of vendors. City Manager Bruce Pope told News10 a drop in vendor participation prompted the decision. With the festival requiring a sizable financial investment upfront, Pope said the Chamber of Commerce determined the risk was too much for the town. However, City Councilman Jim Corsaut said last year's experience was a bad one for vendors. "A lot of them said they wouldn't be back this year," said Corsaut, because of "the way they were treated by the fire chief." Chief Bob Bartley says he was merely enforcing the fire codes required by law. "The fire department treated all vendors very well," said Bartley. "The fire department strives on customer service, and we made sure that everything was explained to (each of the vendors) very appropriately." If the economy improves, Pope said the festival would hopefully return in 2010. Pope added for those who do show up in town during the June weekend this year's festival had been scheduled, there would be a "non-event" downtown featuring a band.
