Fernandina’s October Scaled-Down Shrimp Festival Was A Pumpkin-Smashing Success

Let’s hold the original Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival in May, plus abbreviated Shrimp Festival “version 2.0” in October.

— Steve’s Marketplace —

Editor’s note: Contributing columnist, Steve Nicklas, expresses his views and insight on various topics in Marketplace.

Since you don’t have to recreate a proven tool like the wheel, let’s roll with the scaled-down version of our Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival.   

The debut of the improvised “Falling for Shrimp” event this past weekend was a pumpkin-smashing success. The event was sort of a consolation for the cancellation of the long-running Shrimp Festival in May, which is a time-tested success.   

But the crustacean seed has now been planted. So let’s hold both festivals each year: Shrimp Festival and Shrimp Festival 2.0, in May and October. It will be fun for residents and tourists alike, and fabulous for our local economy and businesses.   

The annual Shrimp Festival commemorates the beginning and the blessing of the shrimping season, in a celebratory fashion. It’s been held here since 1963. With a different twist, the fall version could celebrate the conclusion of the shrimping season.   

The main festival attracts 100,000 people over the first weekend each May. The abbreviated festival this past weekend drew smaller, but still impressive, crowds. Staying with tradition, the reduced festival covered three days and included vendors and music, concluding with a rousing performance by local favorites and musical darlings, The Swingin’ Medallions, on Sunday afternoon.   

Through exemplary efforts by the shrimp festival committee and through accommodations by the city, a sampling of the Shrimp Festival was served up to a hungry audience. A taste that will linger on our palates.  

Steve Nicklas Financial Advisor
Steve Nicklas

_____ Steve Nicklas is a financial adviser with a regional brokerage firm who lives and works on Amelia Island. He is also an award-winning columnist. His columns also regularly appear in weekly newspapers in North Florida, and on his website at www.SteveNicklasMarketplace.com. He has published a book, “All About Money,” of his favorite columns from the past 20 years. The book is available on Amazon. He can be reached at 904-753-0236 or at [email protected].