JACKSONVILLE, Fla — The Cajun Festival brought many people out of their homes as well as from out of the state.
Most people that attended were so glad things seemed to be going in the right direction in the pandemic.
“Oh my goodness it is such a difference from last year we have a festival happening which is of course not what was happening last year. Everybody was of course at their homes," said Liz Mccoy, executive director of Friends of James Weldon Johnson park.
Friends of James Weldon Johnson park hosted the event.
Mccoy says the festival had 10 vendors and three different musical acts.
“We just want to activate the park with fun things to do and get people out. it’s a beautiful day and we got shade," said Mccoy.
Tonya Stafford is from Atlanta and when she and her husband heard about this event she said she couldn’t miss it.
“This time with the pandemic not really having a chance to get out since things are better. We’re fully vaccinated so we decided to come here for the weekend," said Stafford.
A couple of things Stafford was looking forward to at the Cajun fest was food and music.
“The food. love Cajun food and good music, so when we were looking for something to do in Jacksonville and we saw this festival was here. We were like wow we can get the best of both worlds," said Stafford.
Jag boilers ran by two veterans were one of the popular food vendors at the event and had a full Cajun menu of anything you could think of.
“Blue crab, blue shrimp, and then we have of course king crab lobster tail," said co-owner Jacob Garza.
Owners Jacob Garza and Jatara Scott say their business has been around for three years and even during the pandemic, we’re still on a roll.
“We hit the ground running with the pandemic because that’s when we believe the floodgates opened," said Garza.