Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival

Oh MY!!! Seriously, I have lived in Jacksonville almost 8 years now and I didn't know about this event! Crazy. First- it is chaos, they estimated this year to have 150k visitors for the festival- that's right one hundred, fifty THOUSAND people descending on this little coastal town. They had so many vendors, mostly arts and plenty of food and drinks, not to mention all the great businesses in historic downtown! I went with my mom, we arrived around 10am and it took 30 minutes to find parking. Plenty of local business offered parking for a fee- but it was $10 (a church), $20- most perimeter businesses) & $30 for prime parking right off the main drag. Somehow my refusal to park in a paid lot worked out and we found a vacant street parking spot a few blocks away. AKA- be prepared to walk a lot and also prepared to pay for parking. The the festival- the entire main drag is shut down and every side street for a block both north and south filled to the brim with arts, antiques, garden art and more! They have two festival booths for shopping tshirts and other shrimp inspired merch. Mom ended up buying a pink shrimp festival t-shirt. I LOVED all the various art! Metal, glass, photography, painting, pottery, jewelry- you name it! Mom scored various items from $3 to $50 and I bought copper jewelry from 2 different artists. One from Key Largo- Metal and Fire Designs, I found a gorgeous torch patina cuff bracelet and big, gorgeous earrings. Another woman who lives in Clearwater (originally from Maui) does enamel coated metal jewelry- Uli Kai Designs- she was marvelous! I had a difficult time picking out one pair and ended up buying two! Crabby Patty Pottery was there too, a Fernandina local Potter & so many more. People come from all over too- Georgia, the Carolina's, all over Florida- it's really incredible. Years ago I went to a food festival in Jax and was very disappointed, this event was insanely better and I am adding this to my calendar for next year! Now that I have been, I will be more prepared! Oh & the food!!! Most of the food was on the waterfront, at the end of the main drag- plenty of food tents set up and mom and I had garlic parmesan shrimp from the Shrimp Pie boat. Long line, but moved quickly! I am grateful it was overcast most of the day- it was warm, but tolerable. A Gorgeous day for a festival! I'll have to check the brochure to see if they said how many vendors were there, because it was crazy! Highly recommend, wear comfy shoes, bring a hat, sunscreen and a bag for purchases!

Fun was had by all. What an amazing festival full of Shrimp Boats, Pirates, Batman an amazing artist. The weather was perfect on Sunday with blue bird skies and a warm breeze. Food options most touting Shrimp fare were numerous and the beer was cold and refreshing. The streets were crowded shopping for art, jewelry and treasures. The afternoon ended with an amazing concert by The Swinging Medallions. Oh boy what a show. If you have never seen them you need to. I can't wait until next years festival!

This annual festival is always good but this year was the best! I go for the art, love seeing what creative people can do with wood, metal, paint and anything else they can get their hands on.I walked down every street till I made it to main music venue. Once at the pier I jammed with The Swingin' Medallions and they were awesome! They're a full band with horns too, they can play and sing! Everyone was dancing or swaying, yep they were good.I parked in the $10 school parking and couldn't believePeople were pulling into the $20 parking right next to it. When you go park at one of the schools?'c it's the best deal.Yes, I had to have a funnel cake, who goes to any festival and not have a funnel cake.

My husband wanted to take a motorcycle ride up to the Shrimp Festival. Parking is convenient and free on a motorcycle, but if you plan on purchasing larger items, this is not an option. I wanted to look around more, but my husband was mainly interested in food. I'm a seafood lover, so I was fine with just eating and enjoying the ride. The high school band boosters sold delicious garlic shrimp baskets with fries for $15. A shrimp only basket was $11. We ordered 2 baskets and split the fries as it was a healthy serving of fries. Make sure to get plenty of napkins for this meal! It's messy and greasy. The slushies and drinks were quite large, but I didn't order one. We snagged a seat under a large tent which was crowded but still enjoyable. While I was quite satisfied, my husband wanted fried shrimp, but none of the vendors were selling fried shrimp. I saw people who had brought their own chairs from home, and they found shady areas to sit and relax. Great idea! Next time, I would like to actually look at more of the art booths. We whisked past some pretty cool artwork! This festival was larger than I expected for sure.

Enjoyed another year of festivities, food, art and music! The shrimp festival had become a little rough and roudy many years in the past but now it is VERY family friendly...almost too family friendly! Now Friday night. Sat.,Sun the artists are set up and ready to sell but after the shopping, they had some really good bands on the bay front Friday night with fireworks at 9 pm. They have been trying to do some pirate invasion play to illustrate the 8 invasions to the island for a number of years but truthfully, it has not gone over! Usually there is microphone problems and it is very hard to follow the skit...may need to go back to the drawling board on this or skip it all together and have a display somewhere? Saturday music started at 4:30 they had Joe Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult, Alex Lugertwood of Santana and Skip Martin of Kool and the Gang BUT they had to end at 6pm....come on! The family with little kids can go home, get babysitters (?)and let the rest of us adults sit outside sipping some wine/beer and enjoying the music! In other words, it can last later at night! There were plenty of security and no one was roudy! It ended to early! The restaurants will still get business. I enjoyed that they had pricey art and then reasonable good quality art/crafts....Something for everyone. Then they have collectable/antiques sections to roam thru for things you never thought you needed but did..Lol.

This year's annual Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival rocked Fernandina Beach as it has every year for the past 53 years, with Amelia Island's rich history filled with pirates, shrimp, music there's not much doubt why this festival is such a big draw. The highlight of this festival can be difficult to define with all its diversity but for me once the Gin Blossoms took the Riverfront Stage on Saturday it wasn't going to get much better than that. This annual celebration of the history of Fernandina Beach and it's reputation as the birthplace of modern shrimping practices completely consumes the downtown area. In addition to the bountiful fresh seafood and all things shrimp, this annual event also draws attention to the area's history and after spending only a few hours here I know I'll be returning to experience more of its history, after all that's how we ended up here today. It still somewhat amazes me that we continue to be so selective in what we choose to celebrate and where the lines are drawn. The eight flags represents the flags flown here on Amelia Island - the French Flag - the Spanish Flag - the English Flag - the Patriot Flag - the Green Cross of Florida Flag - the Mexican Rebel Flag - the Confederate Flag - and the Flag of the United States of America which almost represents all the frequent changes of possession, this is the only United States location to have done so! It's too bad the Native Americans didn't have a flag since they were the longest occupiers of this island starting about the year 1000 and remained until the early 18th century, I don't think the celebration would be dampened any if the festival would of been named the Isle of Nine Flags Shrimp Festival, I'm quite sure it would be equally as festive. Hasn't anyone ever asked the question "who were here before the French"?

I believe this is my 4th trip to the festival in a row! Chelsea and I always love eating the shrimp, and crawfish from the local communities fund raising such a great experience! The festival is fun if you have never been go because it's awesome! One thing however that really bothered me was a handful of street vendors were selling art pieces for a extremely high price. Which isn't a big deal if it's hand painted like many of them were. However, these vendors had cardboard boxes they were pulling the art pieces out saying MADE IN CHINA on the box. I did a double take on the boxes and sure enough the boxes had brief descriptions of the paintings. A lot of the people I know that went are under the assumption everything is hand crafted by the community selling it. If that's not actually represented then that's on us. We just felt it was very misrepresented. Suggestions- Just verify before you buy a expensive art piece. Moose Out

The years I've gone before I had a really great time but just something about this year seemed off. The festival itself is pretty cool with all the pirates, artists, and antiques but some of the prices for food were a bit much. Not to mention the extraordinarily long lines for the seafood items down by the water.

This event has been going for 56 years. That's a tribute to the organizers. As a former event food vendor, I have to heap praise on the organizers. It's well run and very well attended. I'm not sure how many artists were showing their wares but there were so many beautiful things to see for blocks up & down Centre Street. Side streets had lots of "antiques" that ran the gamut from flea market to estate treasures. Food was....well, shrimp. What else? Most food is down by the waterfront but there are a couple long time vendors just off Centre Street and you DO NOT want to miss them. The Shrimp Gumbo is to die for. We scarfed it. I didn't try the shrimp pie, but people raved. about it. Down by the waterfront we sampled shrimp tacos and shrimp quesadilla. Both tasty. Prices fair. There's a great map of the event on their website and it was very useful to identify the handicapped parking lots. Plenty of porta potties too. We got there at 9 am and things were filing up. Found the HC lot and had no problems. As 11 approaches, it becomes a mob scene. Bussing from shuttle lots is very organized. I've heard 100,000 people attend so come with your patience in tact and come early. Love this event and will go back each year.

http://www.shrimpfestival.com/index-web.htmlYou can follow the Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival activities on TWITTER/shrimpfestival Beautiful weekend to enjoy the over 250 arts and crafts vendors and plenty of food booths -- all food booths must be run by Nassau County, Florida non-profit organization. No commercial food vendors are allowed. Alot of the vendors cook with local shrimp.