72nd annual National Hard Crab Derby brings big business to Crisfield

CRISFIELD, Md. – If you don’t have plans for Labor Day yet, look no further than Crisfield! The 72nd annual National Hard Crab Derby is back, and better than ever before.

Buddy Ward, the Chairman of the National Hard Crab Derby said, “We expanded last year to a week long event and this year we’ve added more events in there.”

Most notably, they added a singing contest.

Linda Singh, the Owner of The Bay Gift Vault downtown said, “This year they did add a new event called Crisfield Sings.”

On top of the new events, organizers of the Crab Derby will be making an effort to honor our veterans this year.

Ward said, “Were doing a couple different memorial services during our boat docking contest to commemorate our veterans. We love our veterans in Somerset County, we can’t say thank you enough.”

Organizers hope all these great new additions to the Crab Derby will attract more visitors than ever before.

Rick Pollitt, the Crisfield City Manager said, “Well I think as the population grows people hear about us they see us in the media and they all wanna come and see what it’s all about.”

An increase in visitors is good news for local businesses.

Singh said, “We’ll see our most traffic during Sunday which is the boat docking, so that’s held over down at the city dock. So there will be a lot of people here I know a lot of people will be coming in here to get pockets of air conditioning if it’s a hot day out there.”

The timing of this event as always couldn’t be better. With people pouring onto the Eastern Shore for Labor Day, Crisfield gets a chance to keep money in Somerset County and away from other enticing locations.

Singh said, “So there’s a lot to do and see in Crisfield and the Crab Derby is what everyone really looks forward to to close the summer season off with.”

Crab races happen on Saturday and the popular boat docking competition is scheduled for Sunday.