Gulf Shore Getaway

Mississippi Coast Coliseum Crawfish Festival

It's the return of the big event to the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. On the last two weekends of this month you're invited to come and enjoy delicious food, listen to an awesome lineup of musical artists and have an all-round great time at the The Coliseum Crawfish Festival. This year's 14th annual event takes place the weekends of April 20-23, and April 27-30, 2006.

Just as past festival goers have come to expect, this year's event will have all the great food, thrilling rides and games, and tons of interesting and unique boutiques for which the Mississippi Coast Coliseum Crawfish Festival is famous.

Southern Breeze Coastal Wine Tour

For those who love beautiful places to drink wine and eat delicious foods we offer the Third Annual Southern Breeze Coastal Wine Tour. The tour is held each year in Orange Beach, Alabama. This year's event will be held the weekend of May 19-21 and includes winemaker dinners, a wine tasting and seminars from Michael Bryan of the Atlanta Wine School on deciphering the language of wine.

This year's tour starts with the Winemaker Dinner on Friday evening in which event organizers pair regional chefs with a noted winemaker. During the meal event participants will learn all about pairing fine food and wine.

Riofest celebrates Art through the Ages

Riofest is an international celebration of arts and culture. This south Texas festival is scheduled this year on the weekend of April 21-23 in Harlingen. Festival events will feature concerts, art displays and craft demonstrations from northern Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley along with musical entertainment and a children's area.

Adult admission is $7 for the first two days of the festival. On Sunday admission is reduced to $5. Dial 1-800-RioFest (800-746-3378), email at RioFest@aol.com, or visit the Riofest web site for more information.

New this year: North Alabama Birding Festival

While you might argue that Northern Alabama is not technically on the Gulf Coast, it's hard to argue that Alabama isn't. This news item, though taking place a bit north of the Alabama Gulf Coast area, is potentially of great interest to birders and vacationers to the Gulf Coast area.

The good folks of Northern Alabama have put together what looks to be a spectacular birding festival this year. In its inaugural event it appears they've managed to pull off a world class weekend for birders. If you're planning to be anywhere near the northern Alabama area in early May this might be just the thing for your vacation weekend calendar.

This festival includes activities for the kids, seminars and workshops on backyard habitat, conservation practices and other topics by renowned speakers, field and canoe trips for birders, an art exhibition, a reception, social events and contests. There is literally something for everyone in the family. It will be worth the trip just to see how they will manage to fit this all in to a single weekend.

Texas Crawfish and Music Festival

This is one big festival folks. Over 30,000 people come to the Texas Crawfish Music Festival each year. Now in it's 19th year the Texas Crawfish and Music Festival is something of an annual tradition to many along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Each year for the festival they boil up nearly 25 tons - yes, tons. It takes a lot of mudbugs to feed 30,000 people. - of crawfish along with lots of great South Louisiana dishes to create the largest crawfish festival in Texas. And that's saying a lot.

Bamboo Willie's Crawfish Festival 2006

Get ready to get down and do some serious head twisting on the Pensacola Beach Boardwalk! It's about time for the Bamboo Willie's 5th Annual Crawfish Festival.

The festival has been moved back a couple of weeks this year to the last weekend in April - the 28th through 30th. The Festival will start on Friday at 3pm, Sat at 11am and Sunday at noon. Willie has a great line up of live music for this year's festival. One Jamacian Reggae, LMR2 and the beach famous Ba'nana Republic will accompany your fun and festivities all weekend long. Enjoy Willie's selection of ice-cold beer, Willie's awesome signature frozen drinks and of course, trays of succulent steamed crawfish.

You can find Bamboo Willie's on the Pensacola Beach Boardwalk near Hooters and Hemingways. It's just across the Bob Sikes Bridge in the core area of Pensacola Beach. If you need it you can find additional parking under the Beach Ball at Casino Beach.