The Courier of Montgomery County reports that Friday and Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend, the 7th Annual Crawfish Critic Cookoff and Festival and the Southern Cajun Cookoff Association’s World Championship will be underway at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.
Expected on the fair grounds are over 20,000 visitors who will be munching on crawfish and other Cajun treats.
An integral part of the festival is Conroe’s Christian Waldo, who is known as Montgomery County’s crawfish critic.
Loving crawfish since a child of 3, Waldo instituted the Facebook group the Crawfish Critic for crawfish aficionados to discuss their favorite crawfish haunts. It has blossomed into 50,000 followers.
The cookoff and festival is an outgrowth of the Facebook following gang. The page started in 2020 and the festival has continued to get larger. By 2025 the festival managed to maneuver on a fairground parking lot. This year it’s the entire ground
Waldo, a few years ago, got together with a TikTok chef from Louisiana known as Stalecracker who has over 10 million followers. They put together the Southern Cajun Cookoff Association. The result is teams of professionals competing for points during the season.
The world championship of the association will happen this Memorial Day weekend in Conroe. The cook teams, totaling over 100, will be made up of accomplished cooks and weekend crawfish devotees.
Well-known social-media personality Wade Fishez and Stalecracker will get together in a Friday Night Content Creator Cookoff and doing demonstrations.
The event offers crawfish, gumbo and jambalaya all-you-can-eat cookoffs.
A kid’s zone and live music is on the agenda, as well as a crawfish eating contest and vendors.
A weekend general admission ticket with crawfish tasting included is $55. The charge is $7.50 for a one-day parking pass. Weekend VIP experiences begin at $165. Those interested can purchase tickets on the Southern Cajun Cookoff Association website.
