A boardwalk now runs west from the lawn at 6800 S. Croatan Highway toward the marsh. It curves around the 50-foot agility course at First Flight Adventure Park and ends at a large gazebo on Roanoke Sound. The Dare County Tourism Board paid more than $3 million for the half-mile walkway, and the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau manages it. Its official opening was set for April 22.
On Saturday, October 17, the Outer Banks Seafood Festival comes back to that lawn for its first fall since the boardwalk went in. The timing fits. Planners once considered a hotel and meeting center for this land. The Visitors Bureau's director points to the first Seafood Festival as the turning point that made it an event site instead.
The Festival Came First, Then the Park
The Tourism Board put together the first three lawn parcels in 2007 and 2008. A 2010 feasibility study looked at a meeting and gala facility of 25,000 to 45,000 square feet. By 2012 the site's limits on parking, septic capacity and buildable space had shrunk that idea into a hotel with meeting space attached.
Stakeholders objected to the hotel. Lee Nettles, executive director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, summed up the reasoning to the Outer Banks Voice this spring:
"The best ROI wasn't necessarily what was best for our community. People didn't want occupancy tax dollars going toward the development of a hotel that would compete with private businesses."
Nettles calls the first Outer Banks Seafood Festival in 2012 the turning point. After it, the Tourism Board voted to make the property an event site for the next 10 years. That vote paid for drainage, lighting and parking. Between 2018 and 2021 the board bought four neighboring restaurant properties: South Beach Grille, Dairy Queen, Blackbeard's and Pamlico Jack's. All four were torn down and the land added to the site.
A larger building is still on paper. In 2021 the Tourism Board approved a 48,000-square-foot sports and events complex. Nettles says people often mislabel it a convention center. He says it is "still alive today," but Dare County isn't currently prioritizing it. So the site has grown the way the festival used it. It has open lawn, room for tents, and now a way down to the water. According to the Visitors Bureau, the Town of Nags Head and the Tourism Board both own the site.
What the Boardwalk Adds to Festival Day
The festival's Fishing Village has always been about the water just past the tents. This year shows a dory boat, a pound net set and a shad boat. The shad boat was developed around Roanoke Island after the Civil War, and North Carolina later named it the official state historical boat. Before this year, visitors saw those boats and then looked out at a shoreline they mostly couldn't reach. The boardwalk now runs out to that sound.
The gazebo is close to 2,000 square feet. According to the Visitors Bureau's boardwalk page, dogs must be on a leash, swimming isn't allowed, and fishing and crabbing are limited to marked areas. The Bureau also says outdoor access can change during events, so the boardwalk may be partly closed on festival day.
Brad Carey, who owns First Flight Adventure Park with Abby Carey, expects the walkway to help the park's business because people can walk over from the event lawn and watch the course from the boardwalk. "The new boardwalk is a great start," he told the Voice.
Saturday, October 17, Hour by Hour
There's no general parking on site, and cars can't drop passengers at the gate. Free parking and shuttles run from Nags Head Elementary School and The ARK Church, with buses about every half hour or more often. Both lots have accessible parking, and an accessible bus is available. Walking and biking are encouraged, and bike racks are free. Details are on the festival's getting-here page.
- 9:30 a.m. Shuttles start running from both lots.
- 10 a.m. Gates open, along with the restaurant and beverage tents, the Fishing Heritage Tent and the vendor areas.
- 10:15 a.m. SOULone opens the Main Festival Stage.
- Noon Opening ceremonies, with the First Flight Chorus singing the national anthem.
- 12:30 p.m. The Daniel Jordan Band.
- 2:30 p.m. The Main Event Band.
- 4:30 p.m. Funkamongus closes the stage.
- 6 p.m. Festival ends.
- 7 p.m. Last shuttles.
Two chefs are giving cooking demonstrations: Wes Stepp of Red Sky Cafe & NC Coast and Mac Buben of Sea Chef Dockside Kitchen. The Fishing Village also has shrimp-prep and boatbuilding demonstrations and two awards ceremonies for the Fishermen Games.
The restaurant list hasn't fully settled. Basnight's Lone Cedar, Dirty Dick's Crab House in both Avon and Nags Head, Firehouse Boil, Harbor Grill, Jolly Roger Restaurant and Shipwreck's Taphouse & Grill appear in both the October 4 festival preview and the festival's Eat & Drink page. Each source also names a few restaurants the other doesn't, so check the festival site before you go. Coastal Beverage, Pepsi Bottling Ventures and Sanctuary Vineyards are pouring, and there will be food without seafood too.
General admission is $20 for ages 13 and up. Children 12 and under get in free with a paying adult. Admission includes $10 in bucks for drinks or merchandise. Online sales have closed, and tickets will be sold at the gate.
The Nags Head Surf Fishing Tournament runs October 14 through 16 and ends the day before the festival.
Where the Money Goes
The festival is a nonprofit, and it sends money back to the industry it showcases. The Outer Banks Seafood Festival Fund helps commercial fishermen, fish houses, charter and head boats, and other businesses that support local fishing. It has given out nearly $100,000 in grants and other support since 2012. The festival says donations to its endowment cover things like fishermen's medical emergencies, equipment repairs, food and supplies.
The fund's count starts in 2012, the same year the first festival led the Tourism Board to set the land aside for events.
What's Coming to the Site Next
The festival in 2012 was one event on an open lawn. In 2026 the Visitors Bureau projects more than 25 events over nine months and more than 33,000 attendees in total. Nettles says the goal was always to "bring overnight visitation during non-summer months." Soundside Markets shows how fast that has grown. Founder Alex Brewer launched it in 2023 with six dates and about 55 vendors, drawing roughly 250 to 300 people a day. It now has nearly 20 dates and 75 to 80 vendors, with 4,000 to 6,000 people on peak days. The next event on the lawn is Outer Banks Brewtag on October 24, and admission is free.
Several projects are underway or planned. Most aren't finished:
- Pickleball courts. Ten lighted courts are going in on the old Pamlico Jack's lot. Site work started July 27, 2026. Dare County's August 4 update projected completion in late October or early November and said the schedule could change. Barnhill Contracting Company won the job with the lowest of four bids, $651,110. Dare County and the Tourism Board are splitting the cost evenly, up to $1.13 million for the whole project. The county's project page posts updates.
- Traffic signals. Dare County approved $230,000 from the Tourism Board toward a signal at the site entrance at Grouse Street and U.S. 158. NCDOT opened bids on October 7 for signals at U.S. 158 and Grouse Street-Soundside Drive and at U.S. 158 and Lakeside Street. The contract allows work to start November 9, 2026, with completion due by November 19, 2027. According to the Voice, the signals are meant to make it easier to walk over from east of the bypass.
- Lakeside Street hotel. Marriott lists a Fairfield Inn & Suites Nags Head at 110 W. Lakeside St. The listing doesn't give an opening date.
- Living shoreline. As of the town's July 1 report, Nags Head had made progress on an easement from the Tourism Board for a living shoreline at the site. No later report shows construction has started.
- Boardwalk extension. The town has proposed extending the boardwalk south to the Outlets Nags Head. It's still only a proposal.
Joe Costello, Nags Head's deputy director of planning, calls the site "nearly 30 acres of mostly undeveloped soundfront land in a commercially zoned district." He says "there is probably no place like it on the Outer Banks." Nettles says success doesn't mean building on every acre. On October 17, the festival Nettles calls the turning point will set up its tents beside a boardwalk that leads to the sound and a construction site where pickleball courts are going in.
If you're thinking about a home near the soundside of South Nags Head, you'll want to understand how projects like these change a neighborhood over time. That includes the new signals, the courts, and a calendar that now runs most of the year. Shane Collins The Obx Island Guys Team follows these projects closely and can walk you through what they could mean for a property you're considering. Work With Us.
