Shrimp Festival draws hungry Friday crowd

By Ashley Hamm | The Beaufort Shrimp Festival kicked off Friday night with an enthusiastic crowd eager to enjoy some delicious local shrimp and dance the night away. Unlike last year’s deluge of rain, the weather was perfect in typical Beaufort fashion and the day culminated in a stunning sunset over the Beaufort River.

That’s a perfect night.

Local restaurants and cookers including Plums, Carolina Tavern, Sea Eagle Market and perennial Shrimp Festival champion Emily’s Restaurant all stood ready with their own unique shrimp-infused recipes.

With our local restaurants vying for the coveted Shrimp Festival trophy, this is some seriously good food.

Shrimp Festival favorite Deas Guyz provided energetic music throughout the night and drew crowds of all ages to the lawn in front of the pavilion and kept the crowd in full swing as festival goers danced and boogied to the music.

Forrest Gump even made an appearance.
The festival continues on Saturday with a 5K Run, Charity Shrimp Race, shrimp peeling competitions, live music, craft vendors and of course… great food.

Be sure to bring the family on down to Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park to get your share of over 2,000 pounds of local Beaufort shrimp and lots of community fun.

For tons of photos of Friday night’s fun at the Shrimp Festival, visit our Photo Gallery.  Photos by ESPB by Jessica Kilcoin/Nicolle Conklin