59th Annual Shrimp Festival set for March 11,12
Every community has it: an event that its people wait gleefully for every year.
And at Fort Myers Beach, that event is the Shrimp Festival, hosted by the Lions Club.
“If you talk to people on the beach who live and work here, it’s their national holiday,” said Darby Doerzbacher, a board member and shrimp boil chair.
This year marks the 59th anniversary of the annual “holiday.” The Shrimp Festival is set for Saturday, March 11, and Sunday, March 12. The two-day event is filled with activities from 10 a.m.to 6 p.m. each day.
While thousands may descend on the island for a taste of fresh Gulf shrimp, for those who live on the beach, the Shrimp Festival means much more.
It’s a uniting thread that weaves the community together and ties Fort Myers Beach and San Carlos Island back to its roots and its still-vibrant fishing industry.
“Growing up, it was the day. Everyone was so excited,” said Liam Farrell, who organizes the 5K race.
When he moved away, he got depressed when he couldn’t make it back for the festival. Now that he lives in the area again, he looks forward to it each year – as do many who have moved away and come back just for the festival each year.
“It’s completely a reunion for every generation of beach people,” he said.
For Doerzbacher and other Lions who spend months planning and organizing the festival, and all the volunteers who help bring it to life each March, the festival is a real community collaboration.
If she needs something, Doerzbacher knows she can get it if she just asks, and local groups, individuals and businesses will help out.
“So many people in this community step up to the plate and help out,” she said. “It makes you feel really good that they’re all there for you.”
Let the festivities begin
For the kids, the fun starts the weekend before. On Saturday, March 4, the Cypress Lakes High School athletic department will hold a kid’s 1-mile Shrimp Run on the beach. The free run is open to children in grades kindergarten through fifth grade, and begins at 8 a.m.at the Gulfview Avenue beach access. Participating children will get a free t-shirt, and Cypress Lakes is still looking for a few additional t-shirt sponsors, who will get their business logo printed on the back. Registration fliers will be sent home with student at Beach Elementary School, but for others interested in entering, email liamcf@leeschools.net.
Farrell, the director of athletics at the high school, has taken up the role of organizing both the children’s run and the adult’s 5K. As a former beach kid himself, he has a special place in his life for the Shrimp Festival.
“I’m still a beach kid at heart,” he said.
He moved away for several years and when he returned four years ago, the 3-mile race before the festival had been abandoned. He brought it back, and it’s been successful. For the past two years, there have been 400 runners participate, so he’s hoping to hit 500 this year.
The adult’s 5K Shrimp Run begins at 9 a.m., Saturday, March 11, at Doc Ford’s. The course goes over the bridge to Goodz Hardware and back. The bridge will be shut down to vehicles at 9 a.m.
And while the racers are hitting their strides, parade-watchers are grabbing their spot for the 10 a.m. Shrimp parade.
“It’s pretty wild,” Farrell said. “Everyone’s out there cheering you on. It’s a good event.”
Pre-registration is $30, day-of is $35. Runners can sign up online at active.com. The race is competitively timed and first, second and third place will be given to qualifiers in each age group.
All benefits from the race go to the high school’s athletic department.
“In the last few years, local businesses have been fantastic in supporting the race,” Farrell said. “It’s a blast.”
After the race, the fun continues: the Shrimp Fest parade begins at 10 a.m. Floats will ride from the Fort Myers Beach Library to Times Square. There are still slots open for businesses and organizations who want to enter the parade. Call Diane Clifton for more information at 454-0043.
“Everyone follows the parade folk to Times Square,” said Lions President Fred Schmiesing.
Then, it’s the moment everyone has waited for: hungry festival attendees get to descend upon Lynn Hall Park for a juicy, tender and locally-caught pink shrimp dinner.
Doerzbacher, who also works at Erickson & Jensen Seafood, picks the best loads of shrimp off the boats for the dinners. She usually buys about 1,200 pounds to serve up about 2,000 dinners over the two-day fest.
While the parade is underway, Doerzbacher and her teams of assembled cooks from the docks start their shrimp boiling so it’s ready.
“You have to cook a lot of shrimp really fast,” she said.
Each dinner is $13 cash, and includes a half-pound of peel and eat shrimp, the Lions’ club secret-recipe cocktail sauce, coleslaw and crackers.
If someone attending the Shrimp Festival doesn’t want shrimp, there will be 18 other food vendors to choose from at the vendor expo in Lynn Hall, along with 92 arts and crafts vendors selling their wares.
No home-town festival is complete without royalty.
There are seven girls participating in the annual Shrimp Queen pageant. All seven will lead the parade in Ferarri’s, and following lunch, the new queen will be crowned at 1 p.m.
On Sunday, the festival and expo opens at 10 a.m.and closes by 6 p.m. A shrimp eating contest will be held at 1 p.m., so all eating challenge buffs better prepare for a bucket of sweet shrimp to scarf down.
Then, as the shrimp dinners run out and the festival winds down, the Cub Scouts troop will be helping clean up downtown.
Shrimp Festival t-shirt
For eager festival enthusiasts, this year’s edition of the Shrimp Festival t-shirt will go on sale in the next week. Lions Club president Fred Schmiesing said the shirts, hats and tank tops will be available at Gavin’s ACE Hardware, Sun Hardware, Pierview Motel, Bay Oaks Recreation Center, Sea Gypsy Inn, B&B Automotive and more locations as the festival date draws near. T-shirts will be $15. Call 651-605-5554 to get shirts to sell at your business.
This year’s shirts have been designed by an up-and-coming local artist: Beach School fifth-grader Celia LaCorte. The Lions club opened the design contest to the school this year and selected the winner based on votes on Facebook.