text: The st Annual Charlotte Bayou Festival took place June but I have just now been able to give a thorough review of this train wreck I wish I could give this event zero stars It is the worstorganized event I have ever attended hands down Ticket holders waited in the food line for a minimum of hour minutes in the blazing hot sun after having waited in the ticket line just to pick up will call tickets purchased online There was no dedicated express line for will call as there should have been The fact it is the first annual one of this event is no excuse for what amounts to downright fraud in the delivery of what ticket holders thought they purchased especially considering a professional events management company supposedly organized the event according to the event website Even a new event should not be difficult to pull off given the professional eventorganizing expertise such a company should be providing Given the poor event management it is only natural to wonder how much money actually went to the charity the event was supposed to support The servers were all volunteers who reminded ticket holders constantly that they were just volunteers They understandably did not want to hear complaints about the event when the real organizers were not even present to receive complaints nnIf you wanted a soda you had to get back into the main ticket line to buy tickets for them You could not pay cash at the point of purchase This system was not made clear when picking up your wrist band for the food part of the event Yet another bad planning issue nnOutside of the food there was not much Cajun about this festival A few high quality craft vendors were sprinkled in with a bunch of low quality ones nnThe event was advertised as all you can eat with live entertainment The live entertainment was located at the other end of the event outside of the paid ticket area away from where everyone was standing in line and eating once they finally got though the line in an area that was free for anyone to visit I know I did not get to hear the live music much less be in a position to say whether I even liked it or not The food was not all you can eat considering about half the menu items listed as being part of the all you can eat meal were not even available and the excessive wait time There was only ONE food line for ALL the food that was available but the line was totally stopped at times when the food completely ran out Why was not it set up in stations like is the norm at a food festival and with an adequate if not excessive supply of food given its all you can eat nature Gumbo at one station corn and potatoes at another fried fish at another etc That way people are split in multiple lines and can at least be eating one item while waiting in line for another item if they so choose There was a second line though Once you were served the first time you were allowed to wait in a MUCH shorter line for seconds and be served again even before everyone in the prImary line was served firsts but only if you did not throw away your takeout container Your dirty container would then be refilled I thought that was against health regulations due to contamination of serving utensils touching dirty plates here plates were the plastic takeout containers nnOnline ticket ordering was misleading too The official website said online tickets were sold out but I found them and bought them on the third party website responsible for selling the online tickets Could saying advance tickets were sold out on the official event website be a ploy to make the event look even more appealing to people undecided about attending by making the event look more popular than perhaps it would really have been otherwise thus spurring ticket sales Given how the actual event was run this idea is not out of the realm of possibility nnThe food itself was ok in quality but not worth the advance price of almost paid per ticket I heard some people in line left this event to eat at Cajun Queen just a few blocks away for less money better quality food far less wait time and most definitely far less frustrationnnIn the end the consolation prize was being able to get a refund for the ticket price by disputing the credit card ticket charge on the grounds the event did not deliver what was promised fraud once I found out some people who had paid cash at the gate were given a cash refund at the gate when they complained about the event