05/28/2026
to the 🦀Ocracoke Crab Festival.
🦀ROLL CALL: Who was there? Who remembers it it? Any stories you’d like to share with the group? 😜
🦀Before ALLLLLLL of the festivals, and scheduled events that now happen on the island, there was only ONE major event on the island. One that stood apart from the others…and always will.
🦀The OG of Ocracoke music, fun, shenanigans and community.
🦀The GOAT of all island gatherings.
🦀People still reminisce about it…longing for a simpler time.
🦀Every now and then, you’ll hear conversations, whispered with reverence, of “bringing it back.”
🦀And then all of the tales and stories of silliness and “misbehavior” start pouring out, like a Jimmy Buffet song. “Remember when so-and-so, did such-and-such?”
🦀But times have changed; the Crab Festival has to stay where it is…in the idyllic mists of nostalgia and yesteryear.
🦀A lot of the folks in this video are still here. A lot aren’t. If you love Ocracoke, it’s worth a deep dive into learning more, ask folks about it, google it, read Philip Howard’s blog… see what shows up.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qPFGOKaMywU&pp=ygUWb2NyYWNva2UgY3JhYiBmZXN0aXZhbA%3D%3D&ra=m
Ocracoke residents and visitors gather on the docks for a day of music- and crab-pickin', May 3, 1986.