The University of Southern Mississippi hosted its annual Crawfish Festival in 2025, providing students with free crawfish and a break before finals week.
The Crawfish Festival, a long-standing campus tradition, offered students crawfish, corn, sausage and potatoes while socializing with fellow students. This year, the Southern Miss Activities Council (SMAC) expanded the event, adding several new attractions.
Music was provided by DJ Kujho, a disc jockey with 15 years of experience. Brady’s Snow Shack offered free snowballs, and a gaming truck featured a variety of video games on a Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Caricature artist Ricky Nobile also attended, drawing free five-minute portraits for students.
Typically held in Spirit Park in front of the Thad Cochran Center, the festival was relocated to The Eagle Walk due to rain. The move allowed the event to continue as planned while keeping attendees dry.
“I have been in SMAC for a year now, and one of my favorite parts about coordinating was seeing the behind-the-scenes of Crawfish Fest and adding my input on how I want my Crawfish Fest to go,” said Damola Aikulola, the event coordinator. “Even though it rained before and during the event, I don't think the weather affected the turnout.”
Aikulola said Crawfish Fest is an important Southern Miss tradition.
“Even if it somehow snows, I know the students of USM will still be there,” he said. “Due to the nature of this event and the huge turnout, every SMAC member stepped up and went above and beyond setting up, making sure the event ran smoothly, and cleaning up after. I also want to thank everyone for coming out and attending the event.”
Students responded positively to the festival despite the location change.
“I was a little surprised when I found out they were going to relocate the event,” said USM student Alexis Duran. “I really thought they would just cancel it. Even though it was in a different spot, I feel like it still was a fun time because the only thing that changed was the location. We still got our crawfish and lots of fun with my friends, so it all worked out.”
The event drew a large turnout, and organizers said they plan to continue the tradition in future years.
