Pirate Festival

On Saturday, July 29, I took a short trip south to Vero Beach for the Pirate Fest.

It is held at Riverside Park in Vero Beach, a place I had never been before. Located on the Indian River Lagoon, but on the East (Ocean) side of the river. It is a beautiful park with lots of parking. As I walked up to the part of the park where the festival was being held, I took this photo of the beautiful trees and greenery. I think the green sign was written in some Pirate font, it says Entrance.

From their web page:

  July 24th, 1715 - A fleet of Spanish ships laden with treasure sailed up Florida's east coast right into the path of a fierce hurricane. By the morning of July 31st, the fleet and treasure was lost to the sea. Each year, on the anniversary of that fateful voyage, Pirates, Privateers and Treasure Hunters of all ages gather to commemorate the loss of the 1715 Treasure Fleet in a family friendly celebration of piracy, better known as the Vero Beach Pirate Festival.       

Of course, if there are pirates, there are ships. Here are two of the nicer ones...

They had a nice Pirate encampment set up with tents and furniture. There were plenty of pirates milling around throughout the area.

As you can see in the last photo, some of the people were kind of stiff and non-responsive....These four had too much rum...

There were a lot of pirate themed booths set up selling all kinds of stuff. I bought me some Jerky from a guy who lives in Rhode Island.

I saw two of these areas for prisoners. No one was in them yet but it was still early. The rum was just starting to flow...

A lot of people were dressed as pirates and they did have some venders selling clothes. here are two I took pictures of while walking through the Festival...

 This one, the girl gave me her card. I said I was not interested but I have friends who might be, She even fixed up her display for me to take a photo...

They did have some treasure hunters available for autographs and questions. They included:

• Treasure hunter Captain Carl "Fizz" Fismer
• Treasure hunter Captain Mike Daniel
• Author Allen Balogh "Black Sails 1715"
• Pirate Author Jaye Helm

Sorry to say, I did not take any photos of this group who had their own tent...

There was a large food section but I was more interested in the beer and rum. I found meself a cold one and Arrrr, sat and watched a pirate band. They introduced themselves by saying "We are called Rusty Cutlass, that is Rusty with an Arrrrr!"

They said they are currently playing at Disney's Caribbean Resort. They said no drinking was allowed while they play there, but here they said they could drink! They were really great. They also do Irish music!

 The pirate band had lots of pirates watching them...

Of course, there was face painting....

And something very unique, mermaids swimming in a pool. Have you ever talked to a mermaid?

The only problem with the day was the heat and humidity. There was plenty of shade but there was no breeze. I almost volunteered to be a merman, just to get into the water!

Another cool thing they did was a pirate battle with swords and guns and cannons....

 The battle included both male and female pirates...one had a tail but her gun was too big for a snide remark

They were letting the kids smell the gunpowder residue after the battle was over...

 I really had a great time and if it was not so hot, I probably would have stayed a lot longer. But I left after about two hours and stopped in Micco for lunch. The place was called the Chubby Mullet and they serve cracked conch. Just like the pirates eat....Arrrrr!