2015 Everglades City Seafood Festival: Feb. 6-8

Got this coming up this weekend...


In addition to shiploads of fresh seafood served up by local fishermen and restaurants, this year?s festival will feature 100 arts and crafts booths, a carnival and continuous country music and bluegrass throughout the weekend.

2015 Festival schedule:

Friday ? 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Saturday ? 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sunday ? 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

And there?s music ? lots of it!

Friday, Family Night

5:45 Charlie Pace
6:45 Lost Rodeo
7:30 Let?s Hang On Band
9:00 Jimmy Van Zant

Saturday
10 a.m. Opening ceremony
10:45 Dance Company
Noon Ben Allen Band
1:00 The Watching
2:15 Them Hamilton Boys
3:30 Rachel Johnson
4:30 Craig Campbell (Nashville artist who has had five singles on the country chart)
6:30 Tim Elliott
7:45 Connor Bevlin
9:00 The Watching

Sunday
11 a.m. Opening ceremony
11:30 Tim Charron Band
12:45 Casey Weston
2:00 The Gladezmen
3:15 Tim Elliott
4:30 Outshyne (The South Carolina-based group was recently profiled in Country Weekly.)

agree with everything said except the food.

I grew up in a little town north of Everglades city called Immokalee.
I spent every summer with my Uncle living and Fishing in Everglades City and Chokaluskee and going to Seafood festival once a year. Moved to Orlando in the Early 80's and havent been back to the seafood festival until two years ago. I had been bragging to my wife about how good the seafood was at this festival with local stone crab claws, blue crabs, fresh smoked mullet etc..

Man was I disappointed. Not a single Vendor was local for the food. There were over 50 different kiosks where you could buy seafood and NOT a single piece of Local seafood. We tried really hard to find one local guy and there were naught one to be found. It will remind you of going to the local Fair with lots of store bought seafood like items. Lots of clam strips from the store, frozen crawdads, and NO fresh oysters. The fish was what they called "White Fish" and not even from the state. One guy there claimed to have fresh grouper, but when I questioned him to see the filets before they were heavily breaded and fried he walked away and one of his hired people taking money at the register told me it wasn't even grouper but "grouper like" fish. There will be lots of tents there with everything from sunglasses to hand crafted items, but we couldn't find one local artist from Everglades City. It was just really disappointing that this once Great Local seafood festival has turned into an event where every vendor is from some place other than Everglades City.

Not recommending that you don't go. By all means its a beautiful flight, nice little runway and just a 1 mile walk from the airport to the festival. But don't expect to get a taste of the local market. It won't be there!

Now on the other hand, If you fly in and go to one of the few restaurants on the island you will be able to find local caught seafood.

Two of us just made the trip Saturday for lunch.
Great little town with a scenic 2500' runway with approach over the water.
Didn't take enough pictures but here is the airport.


Here is the town.
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Had the airport manager call Triad Seafood for transportation and they showed up with a car in 5 minutes. Great lunch on the water with perfect weather.
He mentioned the festival coming up and said that if you drive in you will need to count on an extra two hours for traffic.

Took my niece Sam with me and met Mark there.

My opinion and worth what you're paying for it:
If you fly down there, don't do it during the Seafood Festival. Previous posts explained that and the proprietor of Triad unintentionally talked us out of it when he told us about the crowds.

DO go down there any other time and try the REAL grouper at Triad Seafood and bring home a pound or two of Stone Crab claws. Makes for a great day!



And if you want to fish, this is the place. Part of Everglades National Park. If you've seen Florida fishing shows, many are filmed here:

we have a group of three aircraft headed down on saturday, wx permitted, to camp out. we will be located off the departure end of runway 33. come join in.

this is a fun group. you only live once. that is what i am telling myself. i hate sleeping in a tent.

my plan is to buy a cot and eliminate the air mattress.