The Best Little Festival in Texas - Music & Mosquitoes in Chute
Photo by Marshall Astor — 
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Barbecue, paintball, fajitas and karaoke… no, you haven’t landed in paradise, you’re at the Great Mosquito Festival in Clute. This annual event celebrates the best and the worst that Texas has to offer. (Namely, barbecue and mosquitoes). As full of wind as a corn-eating horse, the Mosquito Festival lives up to its reputation as one of the liveliest events in Texas. The three-day extravaganza attracts 18,000 visitors a year to a divertissement of food booths, arts & crafts, cooking demonstrations, competitions and a carnival presided over by a 26 ft. inflatable mosquito named “Willie-Man-Chew”. Festival goers can sample delectables from some of the area’s best eateries (Lupita’s Gorditas, Thibedeaux’s fried crawfish, and famous frito pies from Brian Armstrong’s) and enjoy foot stomping tunes by Wilfred Chevis and the Texas Zydeco Band, Latin singer Elida Reyna and local country favorites, Micky & the Motorcars. The Randy Rogers Band will headline this year’s festival in July.
Because this is Texas, the festival features a stupendous BBQ cook-off. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta judge it: each year, the Executive Swat team has a helluva time deciding the winner but you, lucky reader, can try out these recipes at home. Cowboy-poet Tibb Burnett has a knockout Barbecue Sauce and musician Steve Welch packs a load of ingredients (and flavor) into his Baby Back Pork Ribs. And why not round things up with a recession-proof recipe that combines three of life’s greatest treasures; Texas, Beer and Chicken.
Once you’ve wrapped things up in the kitchen, it’s time (as they say in Texas) to paint your butt white and run with the antelopes to the RedGorilla Music Fest in Austin. Check in with Kadmus for more top festivals in Texas.
- Courtney Maum
March 17th, 2009 15:44
This “Edible Festival” reminds me of my all time favorite BBQ. From North Carolina — it is East Carolina style pulled pork with spicy vinegar sauce, served with collard greens and corn pone. Wash it down with an ice cold Dr. Pepper or sweet iced tea and you might as well consider that you’ve died and gone to heaven!