Weekend Edition: April 25, 2026

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Island Brief

Amelia Island • Nassau County • First Coast

Happy Friday, Nassau County. Six days until the Shrimp Festival parade rolls down Centre Street, and this is probably the last quiet weekend before the island gets wonderfully, chaotically busy. The weather will throw a little of everything at us: a cooler, smoky Saturday followed by our first real shot at rain in weeks on Sunday. Let's dig in.

Fernandina 🌫️ 63°/59°

Yulee 🌫️ 64°/58°

Callahan 🌫️ 65°/57°

Hilliard 🌫️ 66°/56°

🎉	This Weekend

APR 30

🦐 Six Days to Shrimp Fest: The Last Quiet Weekend Parade kicks off Thursday at 6 PM; festival runs May 1–3. Park & Ride from FBHS is $15 with proceeds to local charities, and Centre Street closures begin mid-week. If you've been meaning to run errands downtown, this is your weekend. Festival details →

APR 25

🎭 "Bye Bye Birdie": Final Weekend at ACT Amelia Community Theatre closes its run of the 1958 rock-and-roll musical with three last chances: Friday 7:30 PM, Saturday 7:30 PM, and a Sunday matinee at 2 PM. After that, it's gone. Tickets →

SAT 25

🛍️ Two Markets Saturday Morning The Downtown Farmers Market is on N. 7th Street from 9 to 1 with live music by the After Hours Duo. A few blocks over at 506 Centre Street, the Arts Market runs the same hours (it's a 4th Saturday). Heads up: Wildlight Market is not on this weekend. Market details →

SAT 25

🎪 "And More" Vendor Market A smaller, eclectic vendor event at the MLK Jr. Recreation Center parking lot, 11 AM to 4 PM. Worth a look if you're working your way through downtown anyway. City events calendar →

SAT 25

📚 Independent Bookstore Day Saturday is the 13th annual national celebration of indie bookstores. Amelia Island has two worth visiting: Story & Song Bookstore Bistro (Nassau Chamber's 2025 Small Business of the Year) and downtown's beloved Book Loft. A perfect rainy-Sunday backup plan too. About the day →

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Try This

If you haven't wandered into The Book Loft in a while, this is the weekend. For 20 years, Sue Nelson was the heart of this independent bookstore, where her love of literature and the people who walked through the door made it feel more like a neighbor's living room than a shop. Sue passed away in January at 83, and the store carries on as the legacy she and her late husband Bill built. It's the kind of place where you go in looking for one thing and come out with three. A fitting way to spend a quiet hour on Independent Bookstore Day weekend.

📍 214 Centre Street, downtown Fernandina Beach • Check hours at thebookloftamelia.com

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📰	In Case You Missed It

News4Jax's latest update places Nassau County in the orange air quality zone, considered unhealthy for people with asthma, allergies, or respiratory conditions. The cause is a mix of exceptional drought, smoke drift from the Railroad Fire in Clay and Putnam counties, and several smaller regional fires. The National Weather Service has extended its Elevated Fire Weather alert through Saturday, and the countywide burn ban remains in force. A front Sunday afternoon brings the first real chance of rain in weeks, which should help clear the haze. If you're sensitive to smoke, keep windows closed and limit outdoor time Saturday.

Read More → News4Jax

More than 250 volunteers fanned out across Nassau County earlier this week for a Keep Nassau Beautiful cleanup, pulling litter and debris from beaches, parks, and roadways. It's the kind of unglamorous, recurring work that quietly keeps the island looking the way it does. The organization's next big push is the Downtown to Dunes Community Cleanup on Saturday, May 9, which kicks off a week of Wild Amelia Nature Festival events including free yoga on the Greenway and native wildflower walks.

Read More → Keep Nassau Beautiful

Shrimp Festival weekend is a week away. What's the one thing you dread most about it (parking? crowds? traffic?), and what's the one thing you genuinely love? Hit reply and let us know. We read every response.

Fernandina Beach is called the "Birthplace of the Modern Shrimping Industry." What innovation arrived here in 1913 that turned a local trade into a global one?

Answer: Captain Billy Corkum adapted the otter trawl, a weighted bag-like net, for shrimping. It let boats work deeper waters and dramatically increased yields. (The first motorized shrimp boat, put together here by Sicilian immigrant Mike Salvador, came even earlier, in 1902.)

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