Village Crawfish Fest organizers select arts organization as new beneficiary amid state funding cuts

The Secret Order of Crawdaddies, organizers of the annual Village Crawfish Festival, have named Kansas City Young Audiences as a beneficiary for this year’s event, to be held May 7 at St. Anne’s.

Proceeds from the previous three events went exclusively to Head Start of Shawnee Mission, which will remain a beneficiary in 2011. Last year, Head Start received $18,500 from the Secret Order of Cradaddies. But in light of the recent proposed cuts to arts funding in Kansas, the festival organizers thought it important to support local arts organizations as well.

“Head Start of Shawnee Mission has always been appealing for its work with pre-school children and their families,” said Steven Coon, a festival founder. “With the reduction in funding for arts programs, the Crawdaddies committed to ensuring that needy students would get exposed to the arts.”

Originally organized in 1961 to bring classical music to school children, Kansas City Young Audiences now delivers programs in a number of arts disciplines.

The festival will feature an authentic Cajun crawfish boil and barbeque as well as Zydeco music from Ernest James Zydeco. This year, the organizers are ordering 700 pounds of crawfish and 400 pounds of pork for the event.