DELCAMBRE — The five-day Delcambre Shrimp Festival reached its crescendo Saturday with a listing of the winners of the annual cookoff competition and music from nationally known artists. 

The festival, now in its 68th year, celebrates the lifeblood of Delcambre’s local economy: the shrimp industry. The event is annually held in downtown Delcambre near the boat docks off Bayou Carlin, where many of the town’s shrimp boats will depart to participate in the shrimp season that opened Monday in Zone 1 and Zone 2. 

The annual  festival attracts revelers from all across Acadiana. It is a family-friendly event with a fair located next to the Shrimp Festival Building that children of all ages can enjoy. 

“It’s pretty fun,” said Susan Trahan, who was watching her daughter, Abigail, play in the fair section of the fairgrounds. “She loves it and the shrimp is really good.”

The festival’s street fair opened Wednesday afternoon. Teche Area and Acadiana residents attending have been treated to fais-do-dos every night since. 

Recording artist Josh Ward took the main stage Friday night, and country music artist Tracy Byrd played for festival-goers Saturday night. 

There were also a variety of prominent local bands playing throughout the week, including Krossfyre, Dustin Sonnier and Ole Whiskey Revival. 

Other fun events at the festival included water fights between local fire departments and the famous shrimp cookoff in which local cooking teams to earn a best overall prize during the competition. 

Shrimp cooked in just about every way possible were available on festival grounds. Those mouth-watering dishes included shrimp burgers, grounds boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, shrimp sauce piquante, shrimp salad and, even, shrimp tacos, which were all on the menu during the cookoff, which took place Saturday afternoon. 

Third place for the cookoff went to Christ Hebert, who cooked shrimp stew. During the awards ceremony, Hebert donated the proceeds of his award to the Shrimp Festival Association. 

Second place went to team LED for shrimp tacos, and first place went to Country Drive, all of who were brandishing team T-shirts as they accepted their award. 

Festival-goers rocked and danced to Leroy Thomas and the Zydeco Roadrunners before Tracy Byrd came out as the main attraction Saturday night. 

The Delcambre Shrimp Festival will close out today, after a 10 a.m. Mass inside of the Shrimp Festival Building. Following that, a blessing of the fleet will get underway on the bayou next to the building, where a priest will pray for Delcambre’s shrimpers. 

Concessions and the street fair will open for the final time of the year at 11 a.m., and music from T.K. Hulin and Friends will start at noon. Concessions will close down at 4 p.m.