Southern roots run strong for many expats who moved to our river city from the low country of the Carolinas or the Cajun and Creole corners of the Pelican State. And for three decades, the unstoppable Louisiana Sue Ramon has been helping those castaways from the land of moss-draped oak trees get an elegiac taste of their culture in the greater Sacramento region, not to mention helping Northern Californians sample the food, music and energy that make the sleepy, catfish-jumping dreamland between Georgia and Mississippi so entrancing.

For 2025, Ramon is hosting her annual Crawfish & Catfish Festival as a free, open block party in Rancho Cordova, a new site from the festival’s previous location in recent years at Sacramento’s Southside Park. Ramon stresses that the same steamy, clawed dishes and smokin’ blues music that locals have come to love will be on full display at the re-envisioned Rancho site. The gala goes down Saturday, Sept. 27 between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. at KP International Market at 10971 Olson Drive. 

Two chefs that Ramon has come to rely on for bringing the taste will be on-hand, Lashunda Cormier, founder of Sacramento’s Louisiana Heaven, and the great Savory Dave, the man behind Savory Dave BBQ catering around the Capital. Cormier’s Louisiana Heaven food truck will be serving up boiled crawfish party bags that contain boiled crawfish, shrimp, corn and potatoes, as well as catfish and boudin balls. As always, Savory Dave will be pit-mastering alligator for sandwiches, along with making plates of 16-hour smoked brisket, Cajun crawfish Etouffée, smoked BBQ jambalaya and smoked Cajun surf and turf.

Adding to eating delights, Ramon has also tapped Lizetta’s Southern Soul Food & BBQ to be at the event. Lizetta’s will be conjuring up crawfish sushi rolls, while also whipping up southern classics like po’boys, popcorn shrimp, fish baskets, cold crab-and-shrimp sandos, gumbo and red beans and rice.

Rounding-out the culinary action are The Truck 707, making crawfish mac & cheese, crawfish lumpia and crawfish stuffed potatoes, and NorCal Tacos, serving crawfish tamales, crawfish tacos, catfish tacos and Cajun chicken tacos. Dessert will be handled by Shea Butta Pudding Co., which specializes in banana pudding, lemon meringue parfait, strawberry cream cake, chocolate pudding and mini-Key lime pie.

But the Crawfish & Catfish Fest isn’t just about filling one’s belly up, it continues to be renowned for providing serious entertainment. This year is no exception. Starting at 11 a.m., there will be a Kids Zone, complete with bounce houses, face painting, toy vendors and a petting zoo. At 11:30 a.m., “Zenny” will show attendees how to do the Cupid Shuffle. By noon, the live music will be going strong with Inner Soul, followed at 1 p.m. by some moves from the Z Crewe Dancers. As the afternoon continues, the festivities will include S.E.G. Get Your Feet Wet Productions, the West Coast Caravan of Blues All Stars and the C.I.E. Line Dancers. At 3 p.m., Sacramentans can gather around to watch the legendary Filmore Slim Blues Review. The party will reach its crescendo at 4:30 p.m. with a performance from MoJo Jones’n.

Ramon says that, in some ways, working with Rancho Cordova has allowed her to bring the Crawfish & Catfish Festival back to its roots: When she first engineered the event in 1985 while sitting in Isleton’s Hotel Del Rio in the Delta, she and Charlie Hand conceived of the event as a free street fest that anyone could enjoy. Now, by departing the city of Sacramento and moving to Olson Drive in Rancho, Ramon is able to return to the block party format that drew so many people all those years ago.