For eighteen years, the Long Beach Lobster Festival has flown in the buttery, decadent shellfish from Maine en masse in order to create a local feast fit for a king or queen.
The festival returns to Rainbow Lagoon for three days, September 5 through 7, and offers more than just delicious crustaceans—which is sadly not included with general admission cost. For those wanting to partake in the feast, which includes a lobster, some butter, some lemon, some coleslaw, a roll and some watermelon, you have to throw down more cash by purchasing a regular or jumbo admission, the latter of which provides 2.25lbs of lobster meat rather than the regular 1.25lbs.
Some believe the entertainment supersedes the ocean critter that is flown in nightly from the Atlantic (though we are skeptical that anything can be better than lobster but then again, we’re Lobster Festival virgins ourselves).
September 5 will welcome the cover band Queen Nation from 7:00PM to closing. September 6 will show off Men in Crisis (1:00-2:00PM), Grand Junction (3:00-5:00PM), Long John Hunter (6:00-7:00PM), and a dance band dedicated entirely to 70s and 80s music from 8PM to close. September 7, Bonne Musique Zydeco will open (1:00-3:00PM), followed by Lazy Brad Lewis (4:00-6:00PM) and Upstream (7:00PM to close).
Aside from lobster, there will be BBQ and gumbo, pies and ice cream. And for those unable to fork over the dough for regular or jumbo admissions to partake in the feast, no worries: other, less expensive lobster options (like the lobster roll) will be available.
Have you been to the Lobster Festival in prior years? Leave your thoughts on the tradition below.