Episode 101: German Sausage Festival and Crawfish Festival

In 1978 Elberta, in extreme southeast Alabama (less than ten miles from the shrimp-encrusted gulf coast), held its first Sausage Festival. But it really began much earlier, in 1904 to be exact, when a group of German businessmen from Chicago bought land in Baldwin County.

Undoubtedly drawn south by cheap land, they also welcomed the absence of heavy coats, wool mittens, snow shovels, and the like. Based on a secret recipe, drawing 34,000 people twice a year, the Elberta Sausage Festival was born of the German heritage that settled the town, and grew, as most do, from a strong sense of civic pride.

A similar story comes from Faunsdale, many miles to the north, in the northeast corner of Marengo County, where once a year crawfish reign supreme.

When a transplanted Louisianan grew weary of missing his beloved crawfish festivals in his home state, he started raising his own mud puppies and inviting a few friends over to enjoy the tiny, tasty crustacean. In 1992, the Faunsdale Crawfish Festival was born, and in the ensuing years the few friends have grown to 25,000 visitors bent on consuming every crawdad that can be served-up.