Fall shellfish festival season opens Labor Day Weekend.
Louisana
The shellfish festivals start with Morgan City’s popular Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival August 30th to September 3rd.
MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi’s Gulf Coast owns the action September 8-9 at Biloxi Seafood Festival.
TEXAS
The Galveston Island Shrimp Festival is September 28-30 where some 60 professional restaurant and amateur chefs compete for the best gumbo. A boat and RV show is also a festival attraction. The Pensacola Seafood Festival is also held the last weekend in September.
FLORIDA
On Florida’s panhandle, Panama City Beach takes a full week for its annual Lobster Festival & Tournament September 17-23, and we’re talking Florida lobsters.
Port St. Joe on the shores of St. Joseph Bay hosts the Florida Scallop & Music Festival October 5-6. The Destin Seafood Festival along the Harbor Boardwalk will be the same weekend through October 7th. A week later, October 11-14, Gulf Shores, Alabama, hosts the Annual National Shrimp Festival.
Niceville, at the top of Choctawhatchee Bay in Florida, celebrates mullet with the Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival October 19-21. Down in Cedar Key, Florida, the Cedar Key Seafood Festival happens on the same weekend. This will be number 49 for the quaint island city.
Also, there are three events along Florida’s west coast the last weekend in October. St. Marks Stone Crab Festival is a biggie on October 27th and so is John’s Pass Seafood Festival October 25-28 in Madeira Beach. Naples Stone Crab Festival starts Friday, October 26th at Tin City, and stone crabs are served all weekend along the Old Naples waterfront.
Apalachicola is famous for oysters and caps off the shellfish festival season November 2-3 with the popular Florida Seafood Festival held at Battery Park at the mouth of the Apalachicola River. Watch the bands play, blue crabs race, and the oyster-shuckers shuck. See the fleet blessed, and shellfish lovers relish in their feast.
By Bill AuCoin Southern Boating August 2018