Pinch those tails, suck those heads and dance, dance, dance! At the ninth annual Gator By The Bay Festival (May 7-9) the Louisiana bayou comes to Spanish Landing Park in San Diego, bringing along 8000 pounds of crawfish (that’s where the tail pinching and head sucking comes in) and some of the hottest Cajun, zydeco, and blues music around.

Dance fever at Gator By The Bay.

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The festival is expected to draw more than 10,000 attendees, enjoying 70 performances on six stages, dance lessons, cooking demos, kid- and family-friendly activities, a plethora of food options including those succulent crawfish (a.k.a. mudbugs)and lots of dancing.

For those unacquainted with the genre, Cajun music stems from the traditions of the descendants of French Acadians (Cajuns), who settled southwest Louisiana in the mid-1700s. Zydeco, the wilder, looser sister to Cajun music, cranks it up a notch with more funk in the beat and more swivel in the dancers’ hips, taking the lively airs and soulful waltzes of the French-speaking Cajuns, and infusing them with African, Caribbean and even Native American influences.

It’s a rollicking, up-tempo, heavily syncopated sound, and both Cajun and zydeco music are literally made for dancing, for celebrating life, and having more fun than you ever thought you had energy for.

There are many who will argue that it’s impossible to listen to the highly infectious music and not want to dance for joy, and if you don’t know how, don’t worry—there’s a full schedule of dance instruction, from zydeco to West Coast swing to Zumba®, throughout the festival.

Peter Oliver, one of the festival organizers, warns everyone: “A no-fault dance policy will be strictly enforced!” Huh? He laughs, “It means, if you’re smiling, you’re doing it right. In the Louisiana spirit, we say ‘laissez les bons temps roulez’—let the good times roll!”

Why Louisiana music in San Diego? In the last 20 years or so, Cajun and zydeco music have moved beyond the gulf coast bayous to dance halls and festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe, drawing aficionados from all over. With a large contingent of such enthusiasts located in San Diego and Southern California, Gator by the Bay is widely acknowledged to be the best festival of its kind on the West Coast, and will be enjoyed by thousands of visiting dancers from out of the area.

Oliver attributes this popularity to a number of factors. First is the quality of the music presented. Headliners this year include two high-energy Louisiana Zydeco bands: Brian Jack and the Zydeco Gamblers, and Keith Frank and the Soileau Zydeco Band, both crowd pleasers here in past years. The Bruce Daigreponte Cajun Band is one of Louisiana's great musical institutions and represents one of Cajun music's finest cultural ambassadors. Eight popular local Cajun and Zydeco bands, including the Bayou Brothers and Theo and the Zydeco Patrol, will join the lineup. Legendary slide guitarists Roy Rogers and Johnny Vernazza will take up the blues headliner mantle, and 31 other blues, swing, country, rockabilly, jazz, pop and Latin performers, such as Lady Dottie and the Diamonds, Bernie Pearl, and Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Band will wow the crowds as well.

Oliver cites the family-friendly atmosphere, the beautiful location right on San Diego Bay and the positive energy generated by thousands of happy dancing and music enthusiasts as also having profound effects on Gator by the Bay’s popularity.