COLUMBIA, S.C. — Layla Johnson's love for crawfish is strong but centers around the small stuff.
"The seasonings, just being able to sit down and pop it open and crack it open, it's always good," she said.
She and her family joined hundreds like C.J. Cypress at state fairgrounds on Saturday for Rosewood's 18th annual Crawfish Festival.
"We hadn't made it back since it was here, so we decided to come to check it out - eat some crawfish and just kill a few hours around all the neighbors," he said.
The festival featured tons of crawfish, over 20 vendors, and live music. John Rosenberger, a New Orleans native now living in South Carolina since 2005, said he comes to the festival each year to get a taste of home.
"A lot of these other places, they got set up, you can [try different things], like alligator, fried fish, fried shrimp, it's that along with the crawfish," he said. "They only do this once a year here; back home, they do it a lot. It's pretty much all season long."
Organizer Matthew Marcom said the festival has grown since it started in 2006 when it was held in downtown Columbia.
"We're hoping this will be one of the biggest ones we've had in a decade, as far as attendance, the size of the headliner, the vendors we've got set up, everything set up to be a great festival," he said.
Cody Guillory and his staff took a 13-hour trip from Louisiana to cook thousands of pounds of crawfish for the crowd. He said that, in total, they'll cook and sell over 5,000 pounds of crawfish on Saturday.
"We own our own farms, so [we] catch the crawfish, run them through graders, purging tanks in all that, get them all cleaned up, put them in the truck and get them here. As far as the cooking goes, it's just boiling them; you drop them in the boiling water when it comes back up to boil, they'll boil for a minute or two and you pull them out," he says.
According to Tyler Newman, the festival also provides exposure for local businesses in Rosewood. He just opened hot dog pools and carts on Whaley Street and said they wanted people to come out and meet the community.
"We're happy they're putting the festival on, just to get out into the community," he said. "We're seeing so many faces out here, thousands of people, so it's good to just be represented out here for sure."
Johnson said the day was best spent with family and neighbors, whether for business or food.
"It's one of those types of vibes; just come out with your family, your friends and be able to chill and walk around," she said. "See the different vendors and just be able to enjoy the music."