Lobster Festival Serves Hot Dogs After Airline Loses Lobsters

A Canadian lobster festival turned into an impromptu hot dog festival last week when Air Canada reportedly lost every single one of the lobsters on the menu.

According to CBC News, the Northern Alberta Lobster Festival had ordered 100 live lobsters weighing 145 pounds, but the day of the festival they were nowhere to be found. The lobsters had been scheduled to be shipped alive via Air Canada, and the Air Canada tracking system said the lobsters had arrived, but they weren't there. While organizers tried desperately to locate their missing lobsters, some gave up and started serving hot dogs.  

"We had people come from all over Alberta, and unfortunately the lobster weren't among the attendees," said festival organizer Jackie Panasiuk. "It was a very disappointing event. We ate hot dogs at a lobster fest."

The lobsters were eventually located in Toronto, and then sent to Edmonton, but by the time they arrived at the site of the festival, the lobsters were 18 hours late, most of them had spoiled, and the disappointed festivalgoers had gone home full of hot dogs.

The lobsters that could be salvaged were cooked and frozen and handed out to the people who came to clean up after the "lobster" festival.

Air Canada says bad weather was to blame for the lobster loss, and has offered to reimburse the Northern Alberta Lobster Festival for their loss.

Next year, organizers say they'll be holding a pork festival instead.