Ok, so you drive all the way down to Buda and pay your $20 to then get your small purse inspected just to get into this rather small festival.  Then you find out for your $20 you get only one medium size tray of crawfish served by someone with bad customer service that tells you that you are getting 1 pound of crawfish.  This is not an all you can eat deal and if you are not aware of or experienced eating crawfish, there is not much meat in crawfish so for your $20 you get about 1/4 pound of actual meat if you are lucky which takes you a lot of effort to get.  The crawfish is spicy so you will probably want/need  something to drink with it so spend some more money for that and you can quickly see this festival is not worth what you pay for it.  Children 8 and under are free but I can't imagine a child trying to eat crawfish, they would not want to spend the time so I would not recommend this festival for families (way too expensive). This is not a festival I would recommend to anyone.  I did not feel welcomed but searched before I ever entered the festival but only after paying upfront to find out what I was told about the festival is no longer true.  Save your money and time and find somewhere else to go! Oh, and organizers, you need to let people know upfront before they pay what they get for their money and that you will search their belongings before you enter!!
Review Source:I was under the impression $20 entry fee got you crawfish and potatoes/corn but only to find out it was a basket size crawfish and corn/potatoes was $4 extra dollars. Extra spices was across the field. The two red potatoes and one baby corn for $4 was served with no utensils and although I'm okay with it, my wife wasn't. Problem is there was no obvious wash stations so a water fountain sufficed until we stopped by a local Starbucks to clean up. Gator boys charged $10 for pictures with baby gator, $1 for jump zone, $3 for mouth wash size feed for live stolk...over all, your wallet was being raped every turn you made so I definitely left feeling I didn't get a good deal
The Jambalaya while leaving was awesome and only $2. Great job!
Live music, vendors (food, drinks, and shopping), petting zoo: typical Austin-area festival.
But wait, there's more- yummy, all-you-can-eat crawfish for $20! We got there at noon (the event started at 11am), and the lines for free crawfish weren't bad at all. Unfortunately, as the day went on, the crowds grew and the lines did the same. Our wait went from about 3 minutes to 15 minutes for each basket (see photo) which still wasn't terrible.
Do...
-get there early!
-make sure you have a drink to go with your crawfish (4...5...6 baskets later it can get spicy).
-ask the price of other food before purchasing (everything edible is pretty pricey).
-walk around and take a look at vendors' booths. There was a guy selling pretty affordable ($15-$20) Indian dresses and cool jewelry.
-try the beignet. It was a bit greasy like Shannon said, but I thought it was still pretty good.
-try the lemonade (same vendor as the crappy Shrimp PoBoy described below).
Don't....
-buy the Shrimp PoBoy that is right next to the free crawfish lines. The length of the sandwich was about the length of my hand, the bread was *stale*, there were about 6 or 7 small fried shrimp, and that was it!...meaning no sauce, no veggies, no nothing! Just shrimp and bread! OH. AND it was $9. BOOOOO.
-be afraid of the line. It moves by pretty quickly!
-wear anything nice. Both the Hubs and I made this mistake. You will most likely end up splattered in juicy, crawfishy, yumminess.
Want to comment on our experience with the lines for the "free" crawfish. Â Got in what appeared to be the longest line of the day (and yes I almost had a heart attack remembering Gypsy Picnic's first year horror show). Â Â Wait turned out to be 11 minutes (my geek husband timed it). Â Next time through, slightly less. Â
Now I will say, if it was a goal to go and eat all you can on the $20 entrance fee, well you might be disappointed because the waits would add up. Â Probably better to go to a restaurant or something. Â But if you just wanted to hang, listen to music and quaff some beer (or whatev) then it's all good. Â
We stuck around for a few hours. Â The crowds appeared to start thinning around 4:00, fwiw.
Who wants crawfish?! Get yourself down to Buda early on Saturday before the gates open at 11am and you'll be rewarded handsomely with stress-free multiple trips through the line to get your free-with-admission all-you-can-eat mudbugs. Otherwise, get ready to buy a cold one and settle in for a 15 to 30 minute wait for each half pound per person you'll receive, and you must get in line again each time you want a single order. OR, go like a high roller and get in  the pay-again line for a much larger serving of better seasoned crawfish ($5/lb, 2 lbs max per order) for which you wait in line a mere 5-10 mins. Now that we got that out of the way....
As an honorary Cajun (born & raised in SE Texas and married into a NOLA family), I give the Louisiana Swamp Thing event a thumbs up. I love strolling around Buda City Park and hearing great Zydeco, jazz, and other bayou melodies while watching festival goers of all ages enjoy the setting. The kids under 8 get in free and the $20 entry fee for adults is reasonable considering the caliber of musical acts (Beau Soleil and Robert Randolph as headliners) and the included parking and crawfish. Bring your folding chair, a shady umbrella, and a big tub of wipes and let the good times roll!
To be fair, I must provide warning that every which way you turn around this event, there are new ways to have your wallet lightened. As you enter the gate, there are the timeshare hawkers trying to get you to enter a drawing for a free vacation - um, no! Then there are the jacked up prices on the other concessions, almost everything in the $6-$8 range (catfish poboy & gumbo - delish; red beans & rice - straight from the Uncle Ben's box, do not want!; beignets - had potential but were cooked in too cool oil and turned out way too greasy). The kicker is the kid stuff, from petting zoo to bounce house to ball pit to super soaker battle course, everything was $3 or more, and if your kid stepped foot outside for a minute, you have to fork over more cash for another turn. Don't be a sucka! Stick to the large free playscape, and limit your junk food intake by redirecting to the water stand and music stage.
Our family had a fun day of it and will probably go back next year, but this time with a better plan for the food & kid attractions situation. Like most of these kinds of events, you can't bring in any outside food or beverage, but you could fill up on something healthy before you enter and prevent a grease & sugar binge.
Tip: The park has bathrooms up on the hill in the back so you can get a good hand washing after handling all those shellfish. Dog lovers, the event lets your leashed babies in for free, too.
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