49th Annual National Shrimp Festival

Is your mouth watering yet? Food is a highlight of the festival with 50 local and regional vendors lining the boardwalk serving crab cakes, conch fritters, lobster, Cajun pistols and many other types of delicious food. Due to the generous National Shrimp Festival sponsors, 10,000 pounds of shrimp per day will be prepared by some of the area's best chefs. Try them boiled, fried, steamed and just about any other way you can imagine.

Get ready to dance in the sand to more than 100 hours of musical entertainment featuring a lineup of national, regional and local acts. There will be musical acts to please all ears including blues, Motown, Southern rock, jazz, zydeco and country. Catch your favorite bands and hear new ones Thursday through Sunday.

Art lovers can peruse arts and crafts at more than 200 booths. It’s a great place to score a gift for that hard-to-buy-for person in your life or treat yourself to something special. Kids can take part in a myriad of activities in the newly relocated Children's Activity Village, including face-painting, karaoke and much more. And don’t forget to enter the annual sand sculpture contest with your family.

Lace up your running shoes and plan on joining runners and walkers at the starting line of the 10K and 5K races. It will help you work off some of the calories consumed at the festival.

While enjoying the sights, smells and tastes of the National Shrimp Festival, don’t miss these other activities and events. If you’re a fishing, or boating enthusiast, check out some rentals or charters while here.  Or watch young and talented artists from seven local high schools compete in Singing for Scholarships.

This is guaranteed to be a not-to-be-missed entertaining event for the entire family.