Panaroma Foods Inc

After Jazz Fest Cancellation, New Orleans’s Fall Festivals Are in Peril | Eater New Orleans

"Operating out of Marksville, Louisiana, NOLA Crawfish Bread is run by John Ed Laborde, the legendary “Crawfish Bread Man,” who has served his iconic crawfish bread at Jazz Fest since 1984. Laborde called the festival’s second cancellation a heartbreaking blow: after the news broke “the phone just started buzzing and ringing off the hook,” and his wife said it felt “like a funeral,” underscoring how much vendors rely on Jazz Fest income and the close, family-like relationships among sellers and customers. He said he was nervously hesitant about the new fall dates and had conservatively planned for about half his normal sales, and that the Rolling Stones’ October 13 midweek show would have created a “logistical nightmare.” Laborde considers himself one of the luckier vendors—he shipped bread last year to New Zealand and recently sent bread to Martha’s Vineyard—but he worries for others who depend on the festival for most of their revenue and hopes things will be better by the spring when Jazz Fest is scheduled to return in 2022." - Clair Lorell