The Green Turtle Tavern
A small tavern on Centre Street in downtown Fernandina Beach with a courtyard, live music and a neighbourhood-bar register rather than a tourist one — one of the district's more locally-used drinking rooms.
Downtown Fernandina Beach festival
Amelia Island Songwriters Festival
Key facts
A songwriters festival in Fernandina Beach built around performances in small downtown venues, where writers play their own material and talk about it — a format that suits the historic district's scale better than a large outdoor stage would.
A songwriters festival is a different proposition from a music festival, and the difference is the reason this format works in downtown Fernandina Beach.
What a songwriters festival is
Writers performing their own material, usually in small rooms, usually solo or in the round, and usually talking about the songs between them. The appeal is proximity and context rather than production — you are close enough to hear the guitar rather than the PA, and you find out what the song is about.
The format needs small venues, which is precisely what downtown Fernandina Beach has: bars, courtyards, restaurant rooms and small halls inside eight walkable blocks.
Why the district suits it
A large outdoor stage needs a field, and Amelia Island does not really have one downtown. What it has is a fifty-block National Register historic district with twenty-plus rooms inside eight blocks, all within a few minutes' walk of each other.
That means a multi-venue festival where you walk between shows, which is a better experience than a single site and much better than driving between venues at opposite ends of a thirteen-mile island.
Practicalities
Check the venue for each set and plan a walking route. The whole point is that you can see several writers in an evening, but only if you know where they are.
Book dinner downtown for the nights you are going. Small kitchens, festival crowds.
Book accommodation early, and stay downtown or oceanside rather than at a south-end resort — the walkability is the festival's entire structure, and a fifteen-minute drive home at midnight defeats it.
Getting home. Ride-share coverage on the island is thinner than in a city, particularly late. Another argument for staying inside walking distance.
Dates, venues and tickets
The organisers set the month, the dates, the venue list, the line-up and the ticketing annually, and we have not confirmed any of it for the current year — including which month it runs in.
Check the festival's own information before booking travel. We publish no schedule we have not verified, and a wrong festival date is a wasted trip rather than a minor error. See our editorial policy.
The rest of the island's music calendar
Sounds on Centre — first-Friday street music downtown, in season. The Amelia Island Jazz Festival in the autumn. The Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival across several spring weeks. And live music in several downtown rooms most weekends year-round, including the tavern courtyards and the historic saloon on Centre Street.
What else to do that trip
Whatever the season, the island's core does not change: Fort Clinch in the morning, the Egans Creek Greenway at first light, a kayak trip into the marsh, the beach in the afternoon, and sunset over the shrimp docks at the bottom of Centre Street before the first set.
Dates for this year
We have not yet confirmed this year’s dates with the organiser, so we are not publishing one. Recurrence pattern: Annually — confirm the current month with the organiser. Check the organiser’s own listing before booking travel — festival dates on Amelia Island move by a week or more between years.
Confirmed dates on our calendar
Nothing confirmed on our calendar for this festival yet. Our events feed only carries dates we have checked against an organiser or an official calendar.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a songwriters festival?
- Writers performing their own material in small rooms, usually solo or in the round, talking about the songs between them. The appeal is proximity and context rather than production.
- Where should you stay for the Amelia Island Songwriters Festival?
- Downtown or oceanside. The festival's structure is walking between small venues inside eight blocks, and a fifteen-minute drive home from a south-end resort defeats the point.
- When is the Amelia Island Songwriters Festival?
- The organisers set the month and dates annually and we have not confirmed the current year's — check the festival's own information before booking travel.
Where it is
- Songwriters Festival the Fernandina Beach area, river side
Plan your visit
- Organisers set dates annually — we publish a date only once we have confirmed it against the organiser.
- Downtown festival weekends close Centre Street to traffic. Park on the edge of the district and walk in.
- Accommodation for the biggest weekends books out months in advance.
Nearby
Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival
Amelia Island's largest annual event, held in downtown Fernandina Beach on the first full weekend of May. Three days of shrimp, a juried fine arts and crafts show, a pirate parade, live music and street closures across the historic district.
Details unconfirmed
New Year's Eve Shrimp Drop
Fernandina Beach's New Year's Eve street party in the downtown historic district, built around a lit shrimp lowered at midnight — the town's answer to the ball drop, and a fitting one for a working shrimping port.
Details unconfirmed
Also in Downtown Fernandina Beach
Related on this site
Part of Amelia Island events — our full guide to the complete amelia island, florida visitor guide.