06/07/2026
🍤 There is no better time to be on the Alabama Gulf Coast than the second weekend of October. The summer crowds are gone. The water is still warm enough to swim. The light goes golden by four in the afternoon. And somewhere along the beach in Gulf Shores, ten thousand people are standing in line for a bowl of the best shrimp they will eat all year.
The National Shrimp Festival has been held on the Gulf Shores beach every October since 1971 — which makes it one of the longest-running food and arts festivals in the entire Southeast. What started as a small community celebration of the local sh*****ng industry has grown into a four-day event drawing over 200,000 visitors, with hundreds of artists and craftspeople, live music on multiple stages, and more ways to eat Gulf shrimp than most people knew existed. Fried, boiled, grilled, in a po'boy, in a gumbo, on a skewer — the festival is essentially a masterclass in what Gulf Coast seafood culture actually means when it's celebrated on its home turf.
Have you been to the National Shrimp Festival — and what's your absolute must-have food when you're there? Drop it in the comments.
