I was asked to write a quick review of Tybee Island Pirate Festival for a new Pirate Magazine, so I thought I would share my stellar review with you!
Tybee Island Pirate Festival 2008 was the very first Pirate Festival I had ever attended, and I grant my involvement in the Pirate Community solely on my exceptional experience on the island that year. Since it began 2005, it has grown exponentially in size, with a solid five star reputation as a family friendly piratical Mardi Gras experience! The island and its many friendly natives, including the hotels and their staff, make an extraordinary effort to enthrall the masses with all things pirate: skulls, doubloons, beaches, waves, mermaids, treasure hunts, saucy wenches, and rum!
The festival kicks off with a bang at the Crab Shack’s Buccaneer Ball on Thursday night where you will find pirates from all over America clashing tankards together and feasting on some much needed fuel for the weekend.
On Friday, the Pirates officially invade Tybee, and the strip is packed with quality vendor booths which remain open throughout the festival. As always, during daylight hours Tybee Island Pirate Festival focuses on family friendly fun for all – but beware, for after the fall of dark most all Pirate Festivals are rated ARRRRR and much rum, dancing, and merriment will ensue! During the festival there are many different genres of music playing to appease all crowds of all ages, children activities, adult costume contests, and leashed pets are welcome!
Tybee Island Pirate Festival offers a brilliant fireworks display, an open alcohol cup policy within the grounds, and boasts an amazing parade (rain or shine)! Above all that Tybee has to offer, my most favorite part of the festival are the actual pirates in attendance. We come from all over the United States to gather on the island, and there are no rules for your choice in garb.
My very first Tybee Island Pirate Festival was spent in multiple Halloween costumes and I was equipped with a plastic sword and gun, which labeled me as what is known playfully in our community as a “Party City Pirate”, but all are welcome on Tybee! These days I’m tight laced into full steel boned corsets and sporting some very real and accurate gear and garb, as are many of us, but Tybee Island Pirate Festival is a melting pot of experience and that’s what makes it so unique!
This is a festival for every kind of pirate, and that’s the best way I can put it. If you haven’t tried Tybee yet, or maybe you have never been to a Pirate Festival at all but you have a skull bandanna in your sock drawer that needs to be put to good use, then come to Tybee Island Pirate Festival! See ya there, or walk tha’ plank mate!
~ Lady Lindsey Lee