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Crowds and crustaceansftsand all-foria goo
By CYNDY RENTZ
STAFF WRITER
BAY ST. LOUIS — The Crab Festival bggan to regain momentum here Saturday afternoon after being flooded with crowds Thursday and. with rain on Friday.	*■;	.>	.	*
Festlval-goers scoffed up hamburgers and freshly boiled shrimp while booth workers • knocked standing water off the protective tarpaulins and set up for business.
Gene Monti spun cotton candy as he has "for C roughly goihg on 35 years," he said.	■
"I’m the sweetest man In town," Monti said, scooping up the sticky, pink web of sugar on a cone for a little girl.
David Ashby of Jackson, Tenn., "just wanted to eat crabs," he said.	,
“That’s all he’s been talking about," said his wife, Leah. The two had been visiting friends in Pass Christian and heard about the fest.
Church member Bernle Piazza of Bay St. Louis was honored late In the day for capturing the spirit of the event.
Piazza got the "Old Crab” award, a golden crab perched atop a gleaming 2-foot-hlgh trophy.
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"His kids call him the 'old grouch,' so It goes from there," said New Orleans jazz musician . Pete Fountain, who presented the trophy.
This year, Our Lady,of the Gulf Catholic Church moved its biggest annual fund-raiser • .#■' from the former St. Joseph’s Academy site on c Beach Boulevard to Fountain's lot at the corner of the boulevard and U.S. 90 — Piazza’s idea after the school property was sold.
Joe and Billy Monti, who spent the past nine & %*' he said.
. "They could have had it here 10 years ago," he said. "Nobody ever thought about It." r ■>
.. The festival was packed from about 11:30 a.m. ^ toll p.m. on Thursday. Joe said the crowd was 'estimated at 20,000 people.
About 2,700 cups of Coca-Cola and 21 kegs of beer were sold. The seafood booth ran out of shrimp etouffe and,gumbo by late afternoon.
"I don’t know where all the people came from,”
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months organizing the event, said the size of the	*<• Thunderstorms poured rain all day Friday,
fest ended up growing to fit the site,
"It just happened that way. We’ve had about 300 to 400 people working. That’s quite a church function there," Joe said.	!•	,	?■
"We went from about 25 or 30 booths to 60	.
booths," Billy said. “We went to arts and crafts, v which we didn’t have before. We went from two i«-food booths to six or eight.” '	-	.*?	.
And "this is the first time we’ve been brave enough to have it on July Fourth weekend,” Joe said. In past years, the fest has been scheduled the weekend before or after.* * • ” ; J' & Fountain said it was a great idea to have the fest on his property.' '	*'	?
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forcing the Monti brothers and a crew of j:
’ volunteers out to the site at daybreak Saturday , >/*r,to hand-pump puddles of water into garbage cans and cover some of the mushier spots with sand. „ ;y^“The rain really didn’t hurt us too bad," Joe said. "We ran out of food on the Fourth, so it gave us an opportunity to replenish our stocks. And everybody got to rest.
“Everything bad that’s happened to us has really turned out to be good,” he said.
^Weather permitting, the festival will continue ‘until about 11 p.m. tonight, Joe said. If the rain . . returns, food will be sold in the cafeteria at Bay 1 *' Catholic Elementary School on Union Street.