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

Wines on offer at Mutiny Wine Room and, at right, Navy Blue sommelier Molly Austed (photo by Julie Soefer)

READY TO TASTE new wines and learn about different wine-growing regions? Mark your calendars for these upcoming spring events showcasing vintner visits, celebrity chef appearances and multi-course epicurean dinners.

Keep Reading Show less
Food

THE QUEEN OF pop touches down in H-Town for two shows at the Toyota Center on March 28-29 as part of her Celebration Tour. River Oaks hot spot a’Bouzy is getting into the groove with a two-day bash celebrating the material girl.

Keep Reading Show less