a waste of our time. to start with the festival was to start on Thursday 10a.m. --- very few food…read morevenders which were not prepared at all. We waited for a soft shell fried crab sandwich for $25.00 and got our money back after 20 minutes. very little shrimp. a lot of venders with the same old stuff -- not impressed. came here as part of our vacation - won't do that again. beautiful area but no hotels on beach -- have to go to Orange Beach for a hotel on the beach. Been to many seafood festivals and this ranks about the worse -- totally overrated.

Well we visited Gulf Shores for the first time, and it was the weekend of their Shrimpfest. There…read morewas so much to look at. Yet I still did not find something unique. Which was disappointing, but well worth a walk through. The shrimp was good. I found a huge plate of Cajun shrimp for $10. Yummy! It helped that I researched the event online, and discovered the shrimp was all local Alabama shrimp. The city itself did an excellent job with crowd control. I don't know if I would make the trip for it on its own, but it was worth a couple hours off the beach. They also had a great stage and bands playing.

"What can I say about the annual 'Elberta German Sausage Festival' other than you simply don't want…read moreto miss it? Yes, the sausage is incredible, but there's so much more to this event that deserves recognition. The local vendor booths are fantastic, showcasing an impressive variety that's hard to sum up in just one message. You'll find everything from Veterans Organizations encouraging support for local vets to food stands offering delicious treats and unique crafts. Take the time to visit, mingle, and discover ways to support the many local programs that truly need our backing. It's a day full of fun, community spirit, and good causes. Thanks, Ron (or as they call me in the biker world, 1/2 Time--because half the time I remember, and half the time I don't!). Be safe, keep the rubber on the road, and watch out for motorcyclists!"

Nice music.Wated 30 min in line to get sausage , not as good as ones at any grocery store.read more

As beer festivals go, you could do a lot worse for the money. For the past few years, I've attended…read morethis Festival and had a great time. Weather permitting, it's usually a great afternoon sampling beers from all over the Southeast, as well as a few from all over the globe. If you can keep your cool in the hot Coastal weather, you'll have a great time mingling with home brewers, beer advocates and lushes while you sip on everything from American-style pilsners to Belgian trippels. There's even food and live music. If you're nice, you can pick up some great free schwag from the brewers, too.

This was our first visit to the Zydeco and Crawfish Festival. They closed up a little early due to…read morethreats of inclement weather, which didn't really matter to us because it only took a little over an hour to see and do everything there. It's much smaller than most of the festivals around here. That's positive in a way because parking is easier. There were about 20-30 vendors set up and they had some cool and unique items for sale. My favorite local candle lady/photographer was there with her candles and wax melts. There were several people selling jewelry, paintings, and other things you typically expect to find at these kinds of events. The bands were good, but the stage was so close to a couple of the booths you could barely hear the vendors. Now for the negative... tickets for food and drinks. Are you kidding me? Everything you buy to eat or drink (except beer) is purchased with tickets, which are $1 each. We had to go look at different vendor booths, figure out what we wanted, then go buy that number of tickets. The beer is cash only and was like $5-$6 for domestic beer like Miller Lite. There were plenty of cool crawfish tables set up, but there was nowhere to wash your hands. Next year, we'll probably just eat before we go. There's room for improvement but we enjoyed it. All in all, it was worth checking out and we will go back again.

Okay this was great. Entertainment, sales booths and crawfish. Now we are northerners and I've…read morenever had crawfish but when in Rome.... lol. The people were great after impromptu how to eat crawfish I was off and running. I'm hooked I love em thanks to all the friendly people we met.

It's the 48th annual shrimp festival on Gulf Shores beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama (October 2019)…read moreLive music, 84° sunny weather, sandy beaches, arts & crafts, lots of food and oh yeah SHRIMP!! Me & my limpy sweetheart just chillin', eatin' & beachin' the afternoon away. Beach life is a good life, especially when you know you have earned it. For 48 years this volunteer-driven event has been a Gulf Shores tradition. Food, music, art, and so much more make up an event that draws over a estimated 250,000 people from all around the planet. The 1/4 million draw is a far cry from the humble beginnings which wasn't much more than a glorified shrimp boil that had a half dozen booths and lasted all of 6 hours. It really has evolved into a world-class event that last four days with over 300 exhibitors that has everything from fine art, arts & crafts, food demonstrations, and a retail marketplace plus vendor booths from Chevy trucks to memory foam mattresses and a lot more. It's an area that covers nearly half a mile with 4-6 walking double isles that stretch from the beaches edge out into beach boulevard, it's pretty darn big and keeps getting bigger. The Annual National Shrimp Festival remains a FREE event open to everyonesince its inception in 1971 when it began as a way to keep the tourist at the beach after Labor Day, which was traditionally the end to the season. Unlike areas, like Cape Cod, where many businesses close their doors until Memorial day, mostly due to cold weather, the weather in Gulf Shores is traditionally still very summer-like in October. Today on Oct 11th it was 89° and there were plenty of beach goers and even some who were having a hard time dealing with the heat. Mainly those folks working from early in the day behind those big tents with big fryers that find the midday heat a little hard to handle however there's plenty of places for event goers to find shade and places to sit, hydrate and catch the ocean breeze. Parking is tough because they close beach boulevard around the fest and lots of prime areas are taken up by vendors so every inch of available space is $10 to park everywhere. The exception is handicap parking which is pretty plentiful and free close to the fest. The good news is there's a lot of shuttles coming in from miles around in all directions. Wristbands for the shuttle can be purchased for $5.00 per day. CASH ONLY. Children 6 and under do ride for free. For all the particulars on shuttles visit their website at: http://www.myshrimpfest.com/shuttles.html Before I talk shrimp music is a big deal here and you can catch local talent and national recording artists on two different stages of during all hours of the festival performing everythinh from classic rock to country. You can bring your chairs & blankets for a good seat to any or all of the shows however be advised that there are no coolers allowed. Another note, everything is handicap accessible right down to all the restrooms with ramps at several locations throughout. Okay let's talk food. There's food vendors from one end of the fest to the other with everything from chicken, burgers, sausages, phillies, pizza, hot dogs, pasta, salads, bloomin' onions, nachos to gator & shark on a stick, Alaskan king crab, all kinds of crawfish, scallops, bunches of different fish dishes, jerky, fritters, lobster and of course a pltheroa of shrimp and a whole lot more. Yes there is beer vendors as well as lots if tea & lemonade stands everywhere and course lots of ice cream choices. We ate fritters, fried shrimp, grilled scallops with fried rice & fries and had some big fresh squeezed lemonades. [I have one complaint .... there's a bunch of Nanny's lemonade stands that advertise regular & sugar-free lemonade. I asked for sugar-free but them was told they only have swee n low, whaaaaaat? No other sweeteners? That is a serious southern thing that is not just not cool because that stuff tastes icky to me] no more complaints. Bottom line: The volunteers truly make this event a real hit because it's many locals, neighbors and muli-generational people who take pride in their hometown. The organizers also continue to push the limits in exhibits, entertainment, amenities and put a huge premium on safety and comfort. It's truly a world class event that appeals to the entire family year after year.

This is such a joke because you're hard-pressed to find any fresh shrimp. The only place that I…read morefound it was at the local grocery store that had fresh bowl shrimp and everything else is fried and the shrimp are coupled with fried green tomatoes and fried lobster and everything else fried you can imagine and they are all cooked in the same grease. Very few vendors sell anything with a shrimp on it. Basically this is just a county fair with no rides. I live down here and was excited because we hadn't had it for two years but never again will I waste my time!

Ballyhoo festival kicks off the festival season here on Alabama's Gulf Coast every year with a…read morefocus on fine arts and cultural exchange from all across the southeast, local seafood, and lots of live music! It's a great event for young and old so bring the whole family and you can bring your puppies too! The location was formerly at Waterway Village but moved to Gulf State Park at Lake Shelby 2 years ago. In my 2020 review I said "I wasn't impressed because the organization seemed lacking, couldn't find many of their signs and, in my opinion, they could do a whole lot better better at their communications, maybe they'll do better next year." They have live music both Saturday and Sunday with lots of booths almost exclusively from local artists. The only downside that the state park venue is alcoholic beverages are not allowed there otherwise it's all a big step up. There were signs and ads everywhere around the area with a nice social media push, 9 food trucks and assorted programs on both days and terrific organization and was very enjoyable. On Saturday we were there for the tribal dancing with the Poarch Creek Indians. They are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans and are descendants of a segment of the original Creek Nation, which once covered almost all of Alabama and Georgia. It was an excellent demonstration with great history and information. See more at: https://www.facebook.com/PoarchBandofCreekIndians We also enjoyed live music with "Rolling in the Hay and Sunday there was the Crosby Family with bluegrass music and a fiddle and banjo competition. Bottom line: It's a good time and super way to get the family-friendly season started. Recommended!!

Packed with local artists. Beautiful location by the water. Music and food trucks added to the…read moreexperience. I only wish I had more money to spend. Deciding what to leave behind was the only negative.