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Chincoteague Island Seafood Festival

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Each year in early May, Chincoteague Island, Virginia hosts its annual seafood festival. This is the biggest, most extravagant seafood festival that I know of. The Eastern Shore includes portions of Virginia, Maryland, and Deleware on the east coast of the United States and is world-renowned for its Chesapeake Bay living and delectable seafood served the way only Eastern Shore folks know how. Wherever else in the world you eat seafood, if you don’t try it here, you’re missing out on this small part of the world’s unique tastes and welcoming hospitality.

To purchase your tickets for this year’s event, visit the Chincoteague Chamber of Commerce. Don’t forget to bring your picnic blankets and/or lawn chairs!

Dancing Under the Tall Pines

The happy dance is infectious! More and more dancers pile in under the pines, where the more "hip" beats fill the air ? Great food, good friends, great times!

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    • Everyone has a great time here 🙂 I don’t even know his name; but, somehow, he finds me at every event I cover lol I moved from one side of the dancers to the other and he came right over to get back in the limelight, no matter where I went or what angle I was shooting from lol When these photographs were taken, I was on assignment with Wild Pony Tales, a local online magazine, and local news provider. Our website is now down for reconstruction, following the passing of our beloved publisher. He left me the business so I’m currently working on implementing all of the great plans we had discussed before his passing.

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  2. Thank you <3 If I can work through a few things and pick myself back up, I'll hit the ground running! Winters are not easy here, and this one has been rougher than usual. But, you live, you learn, and implement ;D Virily is proving to be a godsend <3 It has given me a fresh start 🙂

Clam and Oyster Fritter Stand

Get your clam and oyster fritters here! ? On the Eastern Shore, we love our seafood fritters. These are typically served with our Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts along with the usual suspects, turkey, ham, stuffing, and the like. We like to include seafood in all of our celebrations!

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Oysters on the Half Shell

Chincoteague Salts are the only oysters in the world worth eating in our opinion. Nowhere else in the world do oysters have the same flavor. Believe me, I've tried them!

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    • Oysters are VERY good fried! 🙂 I also have an oyster stew recipe that is AMAZING! I stole it from my Pop-Pop when I was about 9. He wouldn’t give it to me, so I stalked him while he was cooking lol I guess I’ve always been a foodie 🙂 Thank you for stopping by, Carol <3 It's always a pleasure to see you! 🙂

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  3. Interestingly, that is how the people feel everywhere that harvests seafood. I lived for some time on the Oregon Coast. The people there feel that there is no crab, clams, lobster, squid, or shrimp that can compare to those that come from Oregon coastal waters. :)) I tend to agree, but I’m also biased.

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    • Hi there, Rex! Thanks for stopping by, upvoting, commenting, and now piquing my interest 🙂 I must get to Oregon to find out for myself! An added bonus, it’s on the way to another bullet on my bucket list, Seattle and the Space Needle! It’s a pleasure to meet you. Wishing you a very blessed Sunday <3

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      • Hi, Windy. The southern Oregon coast is well-known for Dungeness crabs and a huge amount of shrimp comes into coastal ports. Seattle has great fish and seafood markets, but what I love about the coast towns in Oregon is that when the boats come in, they sell the seafood right on the docks. Since moving to Montana, we’ve not had seafood often since all the seafood we get here is frozen. I love the mountains, but I do miss the fresh seafood.

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        • Good Morning, Rex 🙂 I imagine that’s a specular sight to see in person! Our local watermen used to sell from a dock here and there, but our docks are tiny in comparison to those I’ve seen on television and in pictures of the west coast. We do sell at the docks in Washington, D.C. That is where a lot of our local seafood is shipped to, fresh every day. (We are only about four hours from D.C. here.) However, I have never seen those docks in person either. I also love the mountains, and we have been entertaining the idea of relocating to the more mountainous regions of Virginia, near the North Carolina border. However, I’m also a bit partial to “home.” I’ve moved away a couple of times but I always miss the shore and find my way back. We do buy frozen wild-caught salmon and our local soft crabs when they are out of season. However, it’s never quite as good. The soft crabs tend to not crisp up as well once they’ve been frozen :/ Have you ever eaten a soft crab?

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          • I can’t say that I’ve ever had soft crabs, no. I’m partial to dungeness crabs and remember how disappointed I was the one time I paid the considerably higher price for Alaskan King Crab. Dungeness tastes better to me. LOL

            I know what you mean about ‘moving home’. I grew up at Crater Lake National Park, in the Oregon Cascade Mountains. I’m a mountain boy and every time I’ve lived somewhere besides the mountains, I end up getting homesick. I love the ocean, but I love the mountains more.

            Most of the Oregon port towns are small, but despite the size of the docks, they still sell right from there. They set up a barrel of boiling salt water and people can pick their crabs, live. They are cooked right there on the spot. The Oregon coastal town I like the best is Brookings, a short distance north of the California border. There are about 6,000 people living there (which is substantially larger than the town I currently live in). They have a crab cannery right there in town and the canned crab is sent all over the US, especially in the west. I lived north of there by over 100 miles, but my sister lived in Brookings for many years. She also worked at the cannery. To this day, she amazes me because she can completely shell a dungeness crab in less than a minute.

            The town I lived in, Coos Bay/North Bend, is to shrimp and salmon what Brookings is to crab. Coos Bay has double the number of people, though.

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The Happy Pirate

Each year, this group of pirates finds their way across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel from the Tidewater region of Virginia to enjoy our great food, friends, fun, and sun with us. The happy pirate pictured here is a real estate agent from across the water. He comes here to relax, unwind, and have a great time 🙂 

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    • I wish the sun hadn’t been so bright in my eyes here. Had I not been blind shooting I could’ve gotten the entire crew 🙂 Maybe this year! 😉 They’re awesome folks.

Two Queens Seafood Feast

Oysters on the Half Shell, Clam Fritters, Single-Fried Oysters, Steamed Crabs with plenty of Old Bay, Red Kiss red wine from the Bloxom Winery, beer from the festival's beer garden, best friends since first grade with a wild side, great music, sun, and lots of fun made this the very best day ever in my book! 

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Dancers, Just Getting Started

There are several stages here with music. Some are live entertainment/live bands and others are radio stations and DJs. Either way you look at it, music is also a huge part of the Chincoteague Island Annual Seafood Festival. Pictured here are some dancers just getting started. They haven't had enough drinks yet ;P

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Meet and Greet with the Happy Pirate 🙂

Not only does our favorite pirate from the land across the water have a great time at the Chincoteague Island Annual Seafood Festival, but he also increases the value of our festival with his happy dancing and infectious smile 🙂 

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A Happy Crowd

Although I am, most often, very much an introvert, I never mind being surrounded by a sea of happy people! The energy here is FANTASTIC and there's A LOT of it! 🙂

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And Here We Go…

One more drink in and the dancers are really getting into it! Welcome to our "Electric Slide!"

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    • This year (2018), the Seafood Festival is being held on Cinco de Mayo! I can’t wait! I will be posting more articles on a lot more things to do, see, and enjoy while visiting the Eastern Shore in the very near future! Also, I must add, our brand new waterpark is under construction as we speak 🙂

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Written by Windy Grace

10 Comments

  4. Great article Windy! I hope you are able to find all you Pony Round-up shots! They are a one of a kind view into the side of Pony Penning that none but the Saltwater Cowboys have experienced!! I hope you will at least post a link here for others when you do, if you decide that awesome adventure needs to be saved for more lucrative media outlets that allow true limitless Virility.

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    • Thank you, Jason! I have some Round-Up shots on this computer and the two storage towers, but the destruction of the WPT computer was a HUGE hit. I can’t even begin to estimate the worth of the photography and video that was on there, and that doesn’t even slightly touch my sentimental side… Losing Mr. Boswell still affects me EVERY day and there was a lot of memories of great times shared with him there. However, also because of him, I will not allow that to stop me. I still hold my spot on the islands 😉 So, new photographs and videos are easily obtainable and it’s already been very clearly and repeatedly iterated that they greatly miss me over there climbing trees and fences to get the best shots. I will most certainly be placing links over here when I post my very best articles on Hubpages 😉 I love Virily for the people, but a chick has to make enough money to buy new shoes, too 😉

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  5. I have heard of the festival before, we haven’t made it to Eastern Short yet, need to now! Your pictures were amazing, the story was even more compelling. Thank you!!!

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