The weekend is jam packed with crawfish, music, and beer, from Tulane to Mardi Gras World. Gear up for a Spring Brake Yrself race this evening, plus a free festival in Mid City’s beautiful Fortier Park. On this day in 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes effectively ended Reconstruction in the state when he withdrew federal troops from Louisiana. Now, more to do this Saturday. 

Today, Tulane's Crawfest gets uptown packed again, while Community Records Block Party does the same to the Big Top, Tipitina's has an afterparty for Crawfest with Dragon Smoke and others, while on the quiter side of things Antonia Juhasz, author of The Tyranny of Oil has a discussion at the Maple Street book shop. This day in history, Gov. Laussat, the last French Governor leaves Louisiana (1804), Late drummer and Dixieland Hall of Fame member Leo Adde was born in New Orleans in 1904. Now back to today:

by Brad Rhines

If you can’t get an invitation to your neighbor’s crawfish boil this weekend, fret not. Even if the guy next door is being selfish with his shellfish, two local fests promise a bounty of mudbugs this weekend and both events feature plenty of great live music and local entertainment.  Uptown, Tulane’s annual Crawfest promises plenty of fun in the sun for the coed crowd, while out in Bucktown the seafood stalwarts at Deanie’s host Pinch-A-Palooza, a street party for all ages.