Everglades Seafood Festival Gives Back

Everglades Seafood Festival organizer Kelly Kirk took Monday morning off from Kirk Fish Company, where she’s an owner-operator. She rolled into Goodland just in time to unload a boat. No rest for the weary. The three-day 2024 Everglades Seafood Festival had just wrapped up the night before.

“I had to unload a boat real quick,” Kelly Kirk said nonchalantly. Kirk and her partners, Carrie Doxsee and Holly Levingston Dudley, have been giving it their all. "We're all pretty worn out. I was down there from Wednesday on, and then I came back to work today. Carrie came in on Thursday and she's still down there today. And Holly works on it every day of every month of every year. So, she never rests.”

Looking back on the whirlwind of events, Kirk is pleased with the 2024 festival.

“At the end of the day,” Kirk said, "it all goes back into the community. So, any profit that the festival makes is a win, in our opinion. We made the formal announcement on Sunday night that our goal is to rebuild the community center for Everglades City, for the kids, the community members, and the churches. That's what we're working towards. But we're not going to stop the scholarships, hurricane relief, and the mobile food pantry donations. We're just adding another thing that we want to accomplish to the list.”

Everglades City lost the skating rink they had been using as a community center. The skating rink flooded in Irma in 2017. No sooner than they got it back up and running Hurricane Ian flooded it again in 2022.

“They condemned the building,” Kirk said. “A community center is a long time coming. It will be a really good thing for the whole community, not just the kids."

Kirk is proud of the music lineup at this year’s festival, headlined by chart topping country band Lonestar.

“Everyone had just positive feedback about it,” Kirk said. “Any time you bring a big name into the area, people come from far and wide to see them.”

Kirk said the entire lineup was impressive.

"I was really impressed with Drew Baldridge and the Tuesday's Gone, the Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band. They played right before Lonestar, and I was really impressed by both of them. On Sunday we had Whey Jennings play. He's Waylon's grandson. He just knocks it out of the park. As far as local acts go, it doesn't get any better than the lineup we had. We had Charlie Pace, Gator Nate, Jack Shealy, Rock Republic, Florida Straits. Those are some of the top bands in Collier County right now. We’re just so fortunate to have them here.”

Kirk said the festival was a feel good event. 

“It was a really positive, fun event,” Kirk said. “We really pride ourselves on bringing it back to a family event that everyone can enjoy. Everyone has a good time. We were worried about Sunday morning with the weather. But it rained, it blew through and cleared up. It ended up being a beautiful day."