The NC Seafood Festival, held the first full weekend in October since 1987 on the Morehead City waterfront and free to the public, promises to be a fun-filled event with food, entertainment, kids’ activities, vendors, and artisans – while educating the public, promoting the seafood industry in North Carolina, and honoring the commercial fishing fleet that brings fish and shellfish to our tables, markets and restaurants.
The largest three-day festival in North Carolina, according to Visit NC, an economic development partnership in North Carolina, and ranked nationally in the top 200 “Must See” festivals by the International Festivals & Events Association, The NC Seafood Festival’s 38th annual event will be held October 4-6, 2024. Over the festival weekend, the festival will entertain an estimated 200,000 visitors; host more than 200 artisan and commercial vendors, seafood vendors featuring fresh, locally caught North Carolina Seafood and other NC produced food and beverage products; and provide children’s games and rides, cooking demonstrations and tastings, and two musical stages.
The festival is a non-profit organization of Carteret County citizens and businesses, in conjunction with the Town of Morehead City, NC. It not only publicizes the wide variety of seafood indigenous to our state, it also boosts tourism and recreation on the Crystal Coast during non-summer months and provides opportunities for nonprofit, civic, church, and educational organizations to raise funds through participation in the festival.