Big North Jersey Festival Canceled Over Delta Variant Spread

NORTH JERSEY — The COVID-19 delta variant has put the brakes on a popular crawfish festival that typically brings a nationwide crowd into the thousands, to the Sussex County Fairgrounds.

Michael Arnone’s Crawfish Fest, a North New Jersey tradition since the first event in 1989 in Butler, had planned to make its comeback between Aug. 27 and 29 after deferring for the first time in 2020 because of COVID. Now the festival is sidelined with a second cancelation, for concerns about the delta variant.

Organizers, have now changed the date to June 3 through 5, 2022, because of fears that “people will be exposed at the Crawfish Fest.”

“New Jersey has a high vaccination rate, but that does not help us as we draw from all over the country,” organizer Michael Arnone wrote on the event’s Facebook Page. “We have over 100 band members coming in from Louisiana where our vaccination rate is hovering around 35 percent.”

Arnone said CDC guidance to have those with compromised immune systems wear a mask could still be challenging, with the event’s dance hall indoors and the risk of people coming into close contact with one another, plus unmasking in the heat.

"The CDC stated vaccinated people who are infected by delta may carry a large amount of the virus and transmit it to others,” Arnone also explained. “We know there maybe unvaccinated folks there.”

“I did not come to this decision lightly,” Arnone said. “This is my livelihood. My number one rule has always been 'no one gets hurt.'”

On the event website, ticket holders have been told their tickets will be honored in 2022.

Stay tuned for event updates on the Crawfish Fest Facebook Page.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.