Oh MY!!! Seriously, I have lived in Jacksonville almost 8 years now and I didn't know about this…read moreevent! Crazy. First- it is chaos, they estimated this year to have 150k visitors for the festival- that's right one hundred, fifty THOUSAND people descending on this little coastal town. They had so many vendors, mostly arts and plenty of food and drinks, not to mention all the great businesses in historic downtown! I went with my mom, we arrived around 10am and it took 30 minutes to find parking. Plenty of local business offered parking for a fee- but it was $10 (a church), $20- most perimeter businesses) & $30 for prime parking right off the main drag. Somehow my refusal to park in a paid lot worked out and we found a vacant street parking spot a few blocks away. AKA- be prepared to walk a lot and also prepared to pay for parking. The the festival- the entire main drag is shut down and every side street for a block both north and south filled to the brim with arts, antiques, garden art and more! They have two festival booths for shopping tshirts and other shrimp inspired merch. Mom ended up buying a pink shrimp festival t-shirt. I LOVED all the various art! Metal, glass, photography, painting, pottery, jewelry- you name it! Mom scored various items from $3 to $50 and I bought copper jewelry from 2 different artists. One from Key Largo- Metal and Fire Designs, I found a gorgeous torch patina cuff bracelet and big, gorgeous earrings. Another woman who lives in Clearwater (originally from Maui) does enamel coated metal jewelry- Uli Kai Designs- she was marvelous! I had a difficult time picking out one pair and ended up buying two! Crabby Patty Pottery was there too, a Fernandina local Potter & so many more. People come from all over too- Georgia, the Carolina's, all over Florida- it's really incredible.
Years ago I went to a food festival in Jax and was very disappointed, this event was insanely better and I am adding this to my calendar for next year! Now that I have been, I will be more prepared! Oh & the food!!! Most of the food was on the waterfront, at the end of the main drag- plenty of food tents set up and mom and I had garlic parmesan shrimp from the Shrimp Pie boat. Long line, but moved quickly! I am grateful it was overcast most of the day- it was warm, but tolerable. A Gorgeous day for a festival! I'll have to check the brochure to see if they said how many vendors were there, because it was crazy! Highly recommend, wear comfy shoes, bring a hat, sunscreen and a bag for purchases!