Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival
Taste Northeast Florida’s freshest seafood, Road Trips Foodies, at the 47th annual Isle of Eight Flags Shrimp Festival. The festival will take place April 30 through May 2, 2010, in downtown Fernandina Beach, Florida (but, if you want to see the Pirate Parade, you have to get there by 6 p.m. April 29 — the picture, at left, is from a previous festival).
All of the food booths are organized, staffed and run by Nassau County, Florida, non-profit organizations — and there’s a waiting list (so expect expert home-style cooking in this “birthplace of the modern shrimping industry”)!
The “eight flags” refer to the eight different sovereignty banners that have flown over this Atlantic corner of Florida, starting with the French (1562-1565), and proceeding forward through the English (1763-1783), Spanish (1783-1821, with three interruptions), Patriots of Amelia Island (1812), Green Cross of Florida (1817), Mexican Rebel Flag (1817), United States (1821 to present, with one interruption) and Confederate (1861-2). There’s more on Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach here.
