40th Annual Shrimp Festival

WHEN? Thursday - Sunday · October 13-16

WHERE? Gulf Shores, Alabama · find us on the map

WHY? 40th Annual National Shrimp Festival

This blog post must begin with our disappointment in this year's festival. It has to do with economics. We are retired and on a fixed income. With the price of everything going up, we will probably not attend anymore Shrimp Festivals.

It sounds good that there is no admission to the event, but the best way to attend is to catch a shuttle, so we parked in Bruno's parking lot in Gulf Shores. Then, our first surprise came. The price was $2 a person; last year it was $1 a person.

We had specifically arrived near lunch time to seek out the same meal we had eaten last year. We did not really find it, but one booth had what they called a Paella Dinner for $15 (for one person). Last year a similar meal that was better than this one was $8. We shared the one meal while listening to J.B. Melody on the East Stage.

Anything we saw to possibly purchase had higher prices. One jewelry booth told me they were paying more for what they were selling. So that is what it is about -- inflationary prices across the board.

To see the few photos we took, visit 40th Shrimp Festival of 2009 on Flickr.

As we write this, three more days are left to attend this annual festival in Gulf Shores.