Scallop Festival draws Labor Day Weekend crowd
Despite the rainy forecast, the annual Florida Scallop, Music and Arts Festival welcomed a large crowd of umbrella-holding locals and visitors to George Core Park last weekend.
The festival, which celebrated its 26th anniversary, featured a weekend filled with fried seafood, curated musical performances and a good time in the outdoors to ring in a busy Gulf County summer.
“I think the community response to the Scallop Festival this year was fantastic,” said Joe Whitmer, the director of the Gulf County Chamber of Commerce, who hosted the event.
“The turnout was good on Saturday, despite the rain. There was a good turnout on Sunday. The vendors reported that they all did well. Overall, it was a success.”
This year’s festival featured performances from nine musical artists, some of whom traveled long distances for their sets.
Dirty Little Billy, Flabbergasted Band, Skyler Saufley and the 99th Degree, Jonn Del Toro Richardson and Damon Fowler performed on Saturday. And Sunday’s setlist featured Hot Mess, Baby Gray, Memphis Lightning and the Bo Spring Band.
The event welcomed more than 40 vendors, who proudly displayed their works or offered delicious food to festival-goers.
As this year’s Scallop Festival drew to a close, Whitmer expressed his excitement for the chamber’s next music festival — The Forgotten Music Festival — which will be held October 7 and 8.
The Chamber will also be hosting an Oktoberfest celebration, called Portoberfest, on Sept. 23.
“We’re looking forward to our other great fall events,” he said.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.