Experience the Fort Myers Beach Shrimp Festival this Spring

The Fort Myers Beach Shrimp Festival kicks off on March 14 and will end on March 15. The festival raises tens of thousands of dollars for charity, and some of the proceeds will also form scholarships for local students. The festival is close to our Fort Myers Beach pet-friendly rentals.

The festival is located at 950 Estero Blvd – close to the best restaurants in town.

green grass on the beach during sunset

About

The Lions Club holds the event annually. Each year, the event spans for two days. This year’s festival will include five events and has 100 vendors signed up. Twenty volunteers will dedicate their time to make the festival an unforgettable event.

Close to a number of Fort Myers Beach rentals, the event kicks off with a parade.

For over 60 years, the Fort Myers Beach Shrimp Festival parade has attracted visitors from across the country.

Parade

A two-mile-long parade can be seen from Fort Myers Beach vacation rentals, with guests coming from across the country to the festival. The Matanzas Bridge closes at 9 am in preparation for the parade, so it’s important to be at the event bright and early if you want to find parking.

The parade will run down Estero Blvd and will proceed all the way to Lynn Hall Memorial Park.

Guests that follow the parade will end up on the pier on the beach at the parade’s end. The parade is the largest and most celebrated in Fort Myers. 

parading people

The parade will be on Saturday at 10 am.

As one of the oldest parades in the state, the parade has followed the same path for 60 years. Invitations to partake in the parade have been extended to guests. The parade will feature floats, fun and more. 

This year marks the 62nd anniversary of the festival.

Contact the Lions Club if you’re interested in being a major part of the parade.

Vendors

Vendors will be available, selling their goods and making sure that guests are full the entire time. Once the parade ends, there will be the famous Shrimp Festival Pageant, which will crown this year’s Shrimp Queen.

This year there are 100 vendors all vying for your business.

Vendors will be inside of the festival grounds offering a variety of goods available for purchase. You’ll be able to find all of the usual tourist items for sale, including:

  • Caps
  • Shirts
  • Tank tops

Don’t go home to your vacation rentals in Fort Myers Beach, FL empty-handed – there’s more than enough to buy.

woman holding jewelry

A complete list of arts and crafts vendors has also been released. The list includes big names, such as:

  • BG Hats
  • Hern Apparel
  • M&M Links
  • Kadollu Designs
  • Suncreek Jewelry
  • Mojo Jerky
  • Kira-Michael Gems
  • KMJ Fine Art
  • Fun Designs
  • Island Sand Sculptures

Dozens of other shops and stores will have booths on the festival grounds.

And there is a lot of great food available, too.

Food

A shrimp festival would not be complete without vendors selling the beach’s best shrimp. If you love the taste of shrimp, you won’t want to miss the famous cocktail sauce offered by the Lions Shrimp Boil.

The Shrimp Boil serves pink gold shrimp with a sauce that you won’t find anywhere else.

If you want to take the challenge, there is a shrimp eating contest that you can join in on. The shrimp eating contest starts at 1 pm on the second day of the festival. Watch others try to scarf down as much shrimp as they can. Every year, there are up to 10 sponsored contestants that will compete to eat pounds of shrimp in an eight-minute span.

boiled shrimp in hand

The Fort Myers Beach Shrimp Festival is held from 10 am to 6 pm on March 14, 2020, and March 15, 2020.

If you’ve chosen one of our Fort Myers Beach condo rentals for your stay, you’ll be able to leave your vehicle off of the island. There’s a trolley that will bring guests right to the festival. LeeTran runs a free tram to the event, too. 

There’s no reason for you to fight with traffic or walk down to the event. If you want to be part of one of the oldest and largest festivals in the state, you won’t want to miss this year’s Shrimp Festival. We have Fort Myers Beach house rentals that are close to the festival and offer a hassle-free way to go to the festival or watch the parade.