The Everglades Seafood Festival in Everglades City brings fresh local seafood, country music, carnival rides and arts and crafts to this historic outpost on the edge of the Everglades. This year, the festival, which has been free for many years, is asking for a minimum of a $10 donation.
Festival
Nothing says Florida like an authentic Florida seafood festival. Fresh local fish served in delightful ways by local chefs. This is your guide to seafood festivals throughout Florida.
Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day! In honor of the day, here’s a schedule of annual pirate events and some captivating tales of historic pirates.
This small town festival celebrates a uniquely Lake Placid product: caladiums, a colorful plant grown commercially almost nowhere else. There’ll be music, food, a car show and arts and crafts. New this year: A 1920s steam locomotive, The Sugar Express, will offer rides on a vintage train.
The Florida Folk Festival marks its 70th year at Stephen Foster State Park over Memorial Day Weekend 2022. The annual event celebrates Florida’s land, people and diverse cultural heritage.
The Florida Blueberry Festival highlights not just Florida’s blueberry crop but also Brooksville, a lovely unspoiled region of Florida that is a great place for hiking, biking, kayaking and exploring.
The St. Augustine Lions Club Spring Festival has reimagined its seafood festival past.
Sebring, a small town along the lovely Lake Wales Ridge in Central Florida, is staking a claim for something new — Florida’s first (and only) craft soda festival, the Sebring Soda Festival. Local small-batch sodas made with real sugar are making a comeback, partly as an outgrowth of the craft beer phenomenon. This Sebring festival is a good opportunity to taste what it’s all about.
This tiny fishing village wedged between Bradenton and Anna Marie Island celebrates its rich heritage as a commercial fishing hub.
On their 2,000-mile fall migration, thousands of monarchs stop in Florida’s Big Bend and Panhandle in October and November. A top viewing site is St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, a half hour south of Tallahassee. There is a monarch festival at the refuge Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022. On the same day, you can also go to the nearby St. Mark’s Stone Crab Festival.
The Mount Dora Bicycle Festival attracts thousands for competitive rides over hill and dale. This is your guide to the festival with schedules, a list of nearby campgrounds and links to hotel and vacation home reservations.
The Grant Seafood Festival is put on by community volunteers and has been held every year since 1966 in this riverside enclave between Melbourne and Sebastian.
The Fort Myers Beach Shrimp Festival goes back to 1959. After severe destruction from Hurricane Ian, it was cancelled in 2023 and is back much change in 2024.
This state park has superior cabins and is a great base for kayaking the Suwannee and hiking. It’s also home to an oddly dated museum on Stephen Foster. (We considered it a funky Florida find.)
Mount Dora is a historic town that has figured out how to keep people visiting: Maximize the natural beauty and develop big arts, crafts and antique festivals.
The weather is perfect for getting outdoors, and there’s no better way to enjoy Florida in the Fall than a good, old-fashioned seafood festival. Free parking; Free admission. Camping, fishing, kayaking nearby.
The nation’s first wildlife refuge was created by President Teddy Roosevelt to stop plume-hunters from wiping out several species of birds. The birds are back, and spring is a great time to visit. (You’ll need a kayak for a closeup look.)