Blue Crab Festival — Local services in Palatka

Blue Crab Festival is held at such a beautiful location by the St Johns River in downtown. Palatka! There are so many food trucks to choose from, a large area of rides, excellent bands & entertainment, historical markers to walk trails & enjoy being outside, the playground for the kids. I even saw a live camel ride by the pony rides. I went to watch a fiend's grandkids perform with Showtime dancers & it was amazing. So many dance routines with the cute little ones through teenagers who really know their routines. They did a touching grand finale of "I'm proud to be an American" that had people singing alone & brought tears to my eyes seeing the American crowd join together. I loved the brass band group on stage just before Showtime that had Riders in their name. Different types of music to choose from & fireworks at night. There are plenty of big tents and places to sit at tables in shade. The breezes off the river help cool despite the hot sun. I live in walking distance but there seemed to be plenty of easy parking with places like the Baptist Church taking $5 donations. We are so lucky to have this yearly...

As a small business vendor, I was extremely disappointed with this year’s Blue Crab Festival.

I invested over $600 to participate, based on the promises of high foot traffic, strong marketing, and a well-organized event. Unfortunately, none of that materialized. Attendance was far lower than advertised, marketing seemed almost nonexistent, and the event itself felt disorganized from start to finish.

I spoke with several other vendors and even local city leaders, and the general consensus was the same — this year’s festival simply did not meet expectations. It felt like vendors were misled, and many of us took a financial hit we couldn't afford. As someone who had the option to participate in other, more successful community events that weekend, it’s incredibly frustrating.

I hope the organizers take vendor feedback seriously and make major improvements in the future. Small businesses deserve...

To be honest, I’m disgusted with the food not only was it overpriced but the quality wasn’t even great. You’re looking at a $10 crab! Not only was it small but the meat was mush and it was watery because everyone boils their seafood instead of steaming. There were hundreds of vendors but only 3 had blue crabs and they were all charging $10 a crab which is a joke. Now if they were large and meaty and cooked properly I wouldn’t have had a problem with the price but the quality was garbage. Cool festival but it’s your gonna throw a “blue crabs festival”, make sure the blue crabs are of quality and have more than three people with blue crabs!!! I’m from Maryland and I know crabs and this my...