Crawfish, Country Stars and a Cause: CrawFest 2025 Delivers

Crawfish, Country Stars and a Cause: CrawFest 2025 Delivers

Heather Almond and Zinat Ahmed

NEARLY 1,700 GUESTS headed to Cotton Ranch in Katy for Cotton Holdings’ 13th annual CrawFest — a Texas-sized evening of food and music. The event raised a record-breaking $768,000 for the Cotton Foundation, which supports families facing disaster, illness and hardship.


The real star of the evening? 6,500 pounds of crawfish, served up with all the fixings — plus Gulf Coast favorites like lobster fritters, seafood fondue, boudin balls and bread pudding with a boozy twist.

Guests got competitive during the live auction, which featured everything from Caribbean escapes to helicopter hog hunts. A chocolate lab puppy named Blue Bell stole the show — and a new home — with Cotton EVP Zinat Ahmed. He’ll be trained as an emotional support pup for visitors to Taylor’s Place, a retreat for families facing terminal illness that’s set to open this fall.

Closing out the night? A crowd-pleasing performance by country star Mark Chesnutt, who brought the house (or barn) down.

In the crowd was Pete Bell, Fady Armanious, Ellie Francisco, Whitney Kuhn Lawson, Kristen Cannon and Heather Almond.

Bailey Bell Layne and Pete Bell

Opening Performance by Bayou Roux

Houstonians traveled to CrawFest at the Cotton Ranch in Katy

Stacey Lindseth, Fady Armanious, Ally Ehrman

Balloon Details

Crawfish


Parties

Terry and Amanda Boffone, Bill Baldwin and Fady Armanious, and Jayne and Garrett Johnston

AN ANNUAL TRADITION benefiting Bo's Place, the Hats, Hearts & Horseshoes bash was this year held at the Post Oak Hotel. Nearly 400 festively dressed supporters trotted into the ballroom, greeted by event chairs Fady Armanious and Bill Baldwin, Amanda and Terry Boffone, and Jayne and Garrett Johnston.

Keep Reading Show less

Emanuelee 'Outspoken' Bean, left, and ECHO

ON THURSDAY, MAY 16, at the beautiful St. John Vianney Catholic Church in West Houston, the Energy Corridor of Houston Orchestra closes its 10th season with a performance of Peter and the Wolf. The famous show is Sergei Prokofiev’s “symphonic tale for children,” in which each character in the story is represented by a different instrument.

Keep Reading Show less