Shrimp & Grits: Georgia Shrimp Festival

Shrimp & Grits is in my top five of favorite dishes to order. Shrimp (prepared a multiple of ways) makes an appearance several times in the top ten. A festival celebrating Wild Georgia Shrimp? Count me in!
We made our way up to Georgia this past Saturday & while the event itself (including parking) is free, you do have to pay a ‘Visitor’s Fee’ of $ 6.00 (depending on the car) to get on Jekyll Island. Plus, it’s a two lane little road to get on the island, so depending when you get there, it could take you a while to actually make it past the entry point.
There are plenty of signs clearly displayed to take you to the parking area for the festival. No GPS needed. In fact, they have some of the roads blocked to direct the flow of traffic, so your GPS isn’t just needed, but it won’t do you any good either. We did pass a couple of lots that looks like you could have bought passes for ahead of time, but we were satisfied with where we ended up. We ended up parking on the runway (can’t say I’ve ever done that!) at the little regional airport for the island. They had a shuttle to take you to the festival. They even had a small little train shuttle (like the tourist trains in St. Augustine) to take you from the end of the runway to the main shuttle. And this was a well oiled machine. As soon as one shuttle left, another one was right behind it to pick up the next batch of festival goers.
On first impression, the festival reminded me of any other Arts Market (RAM, etc) with booths of artists and craftmakers. We were given a map & tried to make our way to the craft beer tent. After dining on BBQ all morning, we were in need of adult beverages before indulging in more food. We spotted the Cooking Competition tent and asked one of the volunteers where we could find the craft beer tasting. The building (thank goodness for AC!) in the middle was where we needed to head. $ 10 for ten tastes of a whole plethora of beers was just where I wanted to be. Southern Tier, New Belgium, Red Hare, Eagle Creek, and even some Anheuser-​Busch brands were on tap. We got our bracelet and our tickets and were on our way to hop happiness. And these weren’t just sips of a taste. These were healthy sized pours. Needless to say we were feeling quite good when we got done.
We ventured back outside and made our way to the main area for the Shrimp & Grits vendors. I will pause here to say the weather was BEAUTIFUL. The park is on the water and there was a nice breeze going most of the afternoon. It could get warm if you were in a sunny spot, but there were plenty of big oaks offering a lot of shade options.
There were several — seven, I think — tents set up offering their take on Shrimp & Grits. On the plus side, all the dishes were the same price, so one wasn’t ‘more attractive’ than the other. However, they were all $ 11. Seeing the portions that were being given out, it was a fair price. But there was no way we were going to be able to decide which one was THE ONE we should try. So, sadly, there were no Shrimp & Grits consumed at this year’s festival.
We’ve got our game plan for next year though. Being on Jekyll Island — even just for the day — made us feel like we were on vacation. Friday nights at the festival, they offer $ 3 samples from all the restaurants. We’re planning to go up next year on Friday, spend the night in a nice little B&B, possibly even bike to the festival on Saturday for the Craft Beer tasting and just make a nice little weekend of the trip. Here’s hoping we’re still in driving distance by the time next year rolls around.
(The address listed is actually for the Morgan Center that is in the park. Like I said, it’s not really important, but I had to have it recognize where I was on my phone to be able to add the listing while on my mobile)