The 5th Annual Outer Banks Seafood Festival at Nags Head on Saturday was a great reminder about what the Outer Banks is all about. And it feels so good to put Hurricane Matthew in the rearview mirror. There’s still cleanup to do, some damage to assess, but it sure did feel good to have a day in the sun with great food, great music, a fantastic crafts area and lots of people on hand.
What makes it even nicer is the Seafood Festival really is a celebration of the history and culture of the Outer Banks.
A lot of out of town visitors were on hand and that is great news. As always the folks from Virginia seem to love coming to the Outer Banks, but we also had visitors from all over the United States. A map with a message reading “Tell us where you’re from” showed visitors from Oregon, California and even Utah. Most of the festival goers were, or course, from nearby states, but a surprising number seemed to hail from upstate New York and New England.
There was a very real sense of celebration about this year’s festival. The music was great and people were dancing. Local groups The Crowd and Old Enough to Know Better really seemed to hit a chord (ok, that was a pun) with the crowd and people were up and dancing.
Mathew is still on the minds of Outer Banks residents, and it was good to see the Outer Banks Community Foundation on hand to talk about their relief fund. Everything they take in to their relief fund goes back to the community including the interest they’re charged on credit cards.
It was nice to hear from the Festival organizers that a portion of the proceeds was going to be donated to the OBCF for disaster relief.
