Coastal Companion

Your ultimate guide to the coast

Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival 2009

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Each year, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival invites internationally acclaimed talent and the finest musicians from the Southeast to Amelia Island, Florida. Performances are held at a variety of venues in Fernandina Beach during a two week period from May 21 – June 14, 2009.

The Festival includes a wide range of musical tastes, including: traditional chamber music string quartets and composers such as Haydn and Mozart; chamber music ensembles, including voice, guitar and wind instruments and also modern and non-traditional chamber music.

Click here for details about the 2009 Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival.

Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival

Shrimp Festival – Fernandina, Amelia Island

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Fernandina has one of the best shrimp festivals on the coast. This year it’s the 46th Anniversary and it is said that this year’s event will be even bigger and better.

Fernandina Shrimp Festival is held the first weekend in May in the Historic downtown Centre Street business district in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Florida.
But you don’t have to wait for the weekend. The celebration kicks off already on Thursday with an exciting Pirate Parade. This year’s Parade Theme is: “Home Grown Shrimp, the Pick of the Litter”.

At this festival you can find lots and lots of delicious shrimp. There’s also Fine Arts & Crafts, Antiques & Collectibles, Kids Korner and Live Entertainment from two stages!The festival takes place May 1st – 3rd. For more details about the Fernandina Shrimp Festival on Amelia Island, click here.
Fernandina Shrimp Festival, Amelia Island, Florida

Sounds on Centre Season Returns to Fernandina, Amelia Island

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Spring is in the air and a sure sign of warmer weather is that the concert series  Sounds on Centre returns to downtown Fernandina. The 2009 season kicks off in March and the free concert series will continue until October – except in the month of May.

The concerts are free, so come and hang out downtown on the First Friday of every month from 6.00 pm to 8.00 p.m in historic downtown Fernandina, right on Centre Street.

The line up is as follows:

April 3: Instant Groove
June 5: Tuff-A-Nuff
July 3rd: Out of Hand
Aug 7: Face for Radio
Sept 4: Touch of Gray
Oct 2: Les DeMerle Jazz All Stars

Bring you whole family downtown for some fun and dancing with music from the sixties, seventies and eighties…

Wild Ways Tours by Amelia River Cruises

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Amelia River Cruises has set the dates for its next series of Wild Ways Tours offering tourists and locals, alike, the unique experience that has earned a nomination as Best of the Best in Boat Cruises by WJXT. Votes are now being recorded for a wide range of Jacksonville and surrounding area businesses by category.
A link to voting can be found on the company’s home page at www.ameliarivercruises.com.

To celebrate this nomination, Captain/historian Kevin McCarthy of Amelia River Cruises and international zoologist/columnist Dr. Pat Foster-Turley are conducting a new series of Wild Ways boat tours this spring in and around Cumberland Sound. Each tour will visit different places and tell different tales of local history and wildlife here and around the world.

All tours will be about three hours long depending on wildlife and wild happenings that are encountered along the way. Tours are scheduled for 10:30 AM on Tuesday March 31st and Tuesday April 28, and at 6 PM on Saturday, May 16th as part of the Wild Amelia Nature Festival. Tours will embark from the Fernandina Beach downtown marina at the foot of Centre Street and cost $38 per person plus tax.

Soft drinks are provided but people are encouraged to bring their own snacks and other drinks if they wish. For more information and to make reservations, call Amelia River Cruises at 904-261-9972.

Those interested in scheduling their own chartered Wild Ways Tour can call the office or visit us on the web at www.ameliarivercruises.com.

The Amelia Island Pirate Run

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The morning was cold, very cold, but as soon as the sun came up, the weather was perfect for running. The Pirate Run 5K and 10K takes place in Fernandina every year and is organized by the Amelia Island Runners.

This year the new race headquarters was located at St. Peter’s Church. This is a very well organized event. There are pirates in customes cheering the runners at almost every street corner. The beautiful course goes through town out on the Greenway at Egans Creek.

This year I ran with my sister, Camilla, who is visiting from Sweden. This was her first 5K ever. First-timers received a special medal and she was lucky enough to win a basket of coffee.

After the race, there was a post-race pancake breakfast. The atmosphere at this event is very friendly, and if you’re looking for a fun and unusual race on the coast for next year, this is one experience you don’t want to miss.