What an amazing Tribute to all those who have and still are serving our Country…read more So many people where here watching and praising our military. We are so very blessed to be a citizen of the United States where we are free and our country's freedom is still protected by our brave men and women that serves.

This is an awesome event and it's free! I am glad I made it out this year. Since it alternates…read morebetween the beach and base, I recommend checking out both since they are definitely different experiences. Either way, be prepared for crazy traffic at shows completion. Highlight for me: The Blue Angels. I brought those little squishy ear plugs and was happy I did.

Talented artists with outstanding work display! If you love art do yourself a favor and visit. My…read morefavorite paintings were from Victor Lazar.I bought one of his paintings. I just couldn't resist!!)so colorful,fun and playful paintings. I loved it!!

The art walk is a fun experience. They line up and down First Street and have a wide variety of…read moreofferings. Soaps, driftwood fixtures, paintings, photos, and many other ideas. Try it dometime.

2026 festival had only one stage. Instead of the usual 2. They really need to bring back the…read moresecond stage it lessened the experience for sure.

It's my favorite festival of the year. I love the Blues and was so thankful that the weather…read morecooperated. Friday night Smoke Stack did not disappoint! My schedule unfortunately did not allow for Saturday or Sunday attendance. Two things: If you never been to Springin the Blues - GO If you never have experienced Smoke Stack - you must

the reason the parking is free is so you can come in and spend an arm and a leg on the nasty food…read more I ate at "gyros" and 2 crab cakes with a salad was $25 i asked if i could just have one crab cake and of course they did but did not want to adjust the price at all. We also got some shrimp mac and cheese ($20) that was cold and at the end of the day just kept me in the bathroom. Stay FAR AWAY from this event and spend your money literally anywhere else to eat and get a 10x better deal and won't get sick. There was even a vendor the got featured on food network in 2007 (almost 20 years ago) and wants $45-$50 for everything like if your not standing in dirt eating on a paper plate. Big scam festival and hope they don't come back.

4 of us friends took a bus trip (Lamers) to this festival…read more There were many food tents that had quite long lines. Prices were reasonable to somewhat high. Tents for shopping were plentiful with a huge variety of items to choose from. There were tents with items to buy in a large field as well as many along the streets in the main area of town. The old wooden schoolhouse is still an interesting attraction. Pirates were everywhere which were fun to see...the most handsome pirate looked a lot like Jack Sparrow. He was very handsome, polite and kind enough to let me take a few photos of him.

Really enjoyed the festival. Had been to Amelia Island at least 5 times and finally made it to the…read morefestival. There are very good vendors at this one. Truly a focus on art. A large quantity of non profit food booths that raise money for great causes. Located in a beautiful community with extremely friendly people. Plenty of restrooms and also portapots. Entertainment at the waterfront. Boat cruises. Florida's oldest bar. Mostly paid parking during the 3 day festival. Many nice restaurants located throughout. No charge to go to the festival if you don't need to park.

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!

This was my third time attending the Jacksonville Caribbean Festival hosted at Metropolitan Park…read more This year was extremely hot, so my friend and I didn't arrive until about 5 PM. The music has always been fabulous, and this year did not disappoint. We watched several musicians (and met one) while dancing the night away. I was pleasantly surprised to see the band shell moved to a shady area in the park this year. In prior years, it was on the other side where there was no escaping the sun. You can bring your own chair or blanket. After a little dancing, I relaxed in the grass on a beach towel. We purchased a few alcoholic beverages and drank lots of water to stay hydrated. If you like island music, I highly recommend you check out next year's festival. There is a parade earlier in the day and food vendors.

This was the first time I went to the event and our first trip to Jekyll Island. Less than 1.5 hr…read moredrive from JAX, this was an easy day trip. Festival admission is free, but there is a daily parking fee for the island, which was $15 on the day of the festival, $5 more than on a non-event day. The festival is held in their historic district. The roads are blocked off. I love that it's set up this way. It's way less chaotic, and visitors don't have to deal with trying to avoid both vehicles and crowds. Vistors staying off-island can park at designated spots at the airport and take the shuttle to the festival. We brought our bikes and parked our vehicle at Great Dunes Beach, which was less than a two miles bike ride to the festival. The festival was incredibly well organized and clean. There was a hand washing station and both porta potties and restrooms are located throughout the festival. There were ample tables and chairs set up. Lots of shaded areas. If you wanted to eat picnic style, bring a blanket. There was plenty of lawn space. Lots of food vendors and other options even if you're not a shrimp and grits fan. We were there on a Sat between 11 am - 3 pm. It's less busy in the morning, but the vendors we visited were very efficient, so even if the lines were long, they moved quickly. We thought the food prices were reasonable for the portions. For beverages, you should walk around first since a can of pop/water can range from $2-$5. Same with the beer. There were two main places selling beer for $7/ticket. But if you want a Budlight, you can get one at the Snack Shop of $4. There are live music, tons of festival merchandise, and local crafts & food for purchase from the Artist Market vendors. There are also permanent shops such as Cotton & Copper & Doc's Snack Shop located on the festival grounds. If you've never been, it's definitely worth checking out and not too bad of a drive from JAX.

Once a year for 3 days Jekyll Island has their Shrimp and Grits Festival! Artist, food/alcohol…read morevendors, non-profit and tourism information set up along the inter-coastal. There are bands set up in 3 locations and they estimate 45,000 people come. It cost $12 to drive on the island and then parking is just a school bus ride away from a parking lot. We brought our bikes so we found parking and biked in; our preferred mode. We bought shrimp/grits from Jekyll Island Club resort, said to be best of show for $12 but they had all kinds of food-pizza, burgers, hotdogs, Latin Fusion, ice cream, cookies, funnel cakes etc. we then biked down to beach and saw some cool kites.. Something good they have done here is build a large walking/biking path at the ocean to get people out and about!

Jazz Fest returns to Metro Park!! I realize that this is…read moreprobably just a temporary venue while the Jax Landing space gets figured out, but thank you City of Jax - this is the perfect spot! And on top of that, they added Daily's Place too!! Seats, covered seats - away from the heat & elements! And lots & lots of parking ($15) at the stadium. Also - thank you for the variety of food trucks and having the buses available for Cooling Stations. We all mourn the recent loss of David Sanborn - Jax has done a good job adding new artists & juggling the schedule after this tragedy.

We've been attending the Jax Jazz Fest for more than 15 years. We come down from Atlanta and…read morepurchase the "VIP Experience" every year. We just got back from the 2025 fest, and it was the most disappointing of all. Background: The Jax Jazz Fest (JJF) used to be a wonderful experience. Not anymore. They used to provide 3-5 different stages with all types of jazz, smooth, Latin, Cool, Swing...you name it. It used to start around 11 am and go into the night. No more. It's down to one stage with R&B and HipHop artists and some Jazz sprinkled in. It's no longer a Jazz Festival. Gates open around 5 pm most days, so it's less than half the musical choices it used to be. It gets worse. The VIP thing is a joke, an expensive joke. We paid $ 1,200 for the two of us for the 4-day event. It's actually 3 days since the first day is only one performance, usually a little-known act. We parked a half mile from the venue in the VIP lot...and walked in the blistering Florida heat. Through sandy, gritty former parking lots and abandoned former industrial sites. We were filthy from the waist down by the time we finished our hike to the gate. There is only one gate, leaving you with yet another 200-yard walk through the crowd to the undersized VIP tent, which, of course, was full, with nowhere to sit, since it was undersized for the VIP crowd size. Drinks. We paid $60 with a couple of dollar tip for two "signature drinks" that were unidentifiable. Twenty-six bucks each plus tax. You read that right. Watered down and loaded with ice, they were terrible. They stopped providing drinks as part of the admission a few years ago, but the price remained unchanged. A total money grab from the event organizers. The food is unlimited, but doesn't change all day...so how many times are you going back for the same piece of chicken you ate a few hours ago? You'll eat once, pick a little the second go round, and you're done. You'd think they would bring out different choices, some fruit, sliders, wings, maybe some pasta as the day wears on, but no. Same food all day long. So, unlimited food is limited by the poor selection that remains unchanged. Kool and the Gang and Maysa saved the weekend, as did Trombone Shorty. Also, we long ago started staying at the beach in case the JJF disappoints, which is has begun to do more often, so coming from Atlanta, we at least have some beach time. Sunday was rained out for the most part, as was Saturday last year. Do you think they would provide us with a credit for next year's "VIP Experience" since we spent over $300 on the tickets for that day? Nope, tough luck. We're done. No more VIP, since there's nothing VIP about it. Oh, and to be clear, you have to buy the VIP before they announce who is playing, or you pay more for waiting. It's sad what this has become, as we had many happy times in the past.