Downtown Fernandina Beach 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.
The Shrimp Festival is the island's biggest weekend of the year, and the one that most changes how you should plan a visit.
It is held in downtown Fernandina Beach, traditionally on the first full weekend of May, and it fills the historic district: Centre Street and the surrounding blocks close to traffic, the waterfront becomes the festival's spine, and the population of the island for those three days is a multiple of normal.
Three things at once. A shrimp festival, marking Fernandina's history as a shrimping port — the town has a claim to the origins of the modern shrimping industry, and the fleet is still working. A large juried fine arts and crafts show, which is the part that draws people from across the Southeast. And a street party, with live music stages, a pirate parade, and a fireworks display.
If you want to attend: book accommodation months ahead, on the island or off it. Arrive early, park once, and walk. Free shuttle arrangements have run from outlying lots in past years — check the festival's own information before you drive downtown.
If you do not want to attend: this is the weekend to be at the south end or off the island. Restaurants downtown are at capacity, waits are long, and driving through the historic district is not possible.
The pattern is the first full weekend of May, Friday through Sunday, but the festival sets its own dates each year and we do not publish an unconfirmed one. Check the organiser's site for the current year before booking.
The festival itself has historically been free to enter, with individual attractions, food and craft purchases priced separately. Treat that as unconfirmed and check.
We have not yet confirmed this year’s dates with the organiser, so we are not publishing one. Recurrence pattern: First full weekend of May (organiser sets exact dates each year). Check the organiser’s own listing before booking travel — festival dates on Amelia Island move by a week or more between years.
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.
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
A small French restaurant in a Victorian cottage on South 2nd Street in downtown Fernandina Beach — Provençal cooking in a handful of rooms, and the island's most distinctive dinner setting.
Details unconfirmed
One of the largest pétanque tournaments in the United States, held each November in downtown Fernandina Beach with courts laid out in the historic district — a genuinely unexpected thing for a Florida barrier island to host, and free to watch.
Details unconfirmed
Part of Amelia Island events — our full guide to the complete amelia island, florida visitor guide.