This Saturday and Sunday will be the biggest weekend of the year for Fort Myers Beach historically.

The Fort Myers Beach Lion’s Club Shrimp Festival is returning after a one-year hiatus due to Hurricane Ian. This year’s event will be the 66th since the Lion’s Club took over the event after several years of being organized by shrimp boaters off Main Street.

Fort Myers Beach Lion’s Club President Drew Yelle is expecting the festival to return in a big way with 40 floats lined up to take part in Saturday morning’s parade down Estero Boulevard following the popular 5K race. The Shrimp Festival Queen’s Pageant will wrap up after the parade at Bayside Veteran’s Memorial Park with 10 local princesses. Dozens of arts and crafts vendors are expected to set up off Old San Carlos Boulevard.

In a break from the traditional shrimp boil due to space limitations at Lynn Hall Memorial Park, 16 Beach restaurants will be taking part in special shrimp menus that can be purchased through passports being offered by the Lion’s Club.

A shrimp-eating contest on Sunday will help cap off the festivities.

“We have had tremendous support from the town and local businesses to help our Lions Club,” Yelle said.

The parade will begin at the Fort Myers Beach Elementary School and run to Times Square.

A passport offered by the Lion’s Club describes all the events and each restaurant participating in the shrimp crawl. The passports are available at Erickson and Jensen Seafood Company, the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce and Tunaskin. Those who get stamps at six restaurants will qualify for the raffle, Yelle said.

These have been tough times for the local shrimp fleet since the last time there was a shrimp festival on Fort Myers Beach.

Since Hurricane Ian, Fort Myers Beach lost longtime shrimp suppliers Trico Shrimp Co. and only 10 of the 45 shrimp boats that were docked at the Main Street waterfront have returned to service.

Tracey Gore and her husband Henry are among the small number of shrimp boaters able to have resumed their business.

After Hurricane Ian, Ms. Gore met with President Joe Biden and Gov. Ron DeSantis to send the message of how much helped the shrimp fleet needed to get the boats back in the water after they washed ashore. Gore said she stayed in touch with governor’s office “constantly until the mission was complete.” Eventually, boats like her “Lexi Joe” made it back into the water after undergoing repairs in Alabama. Still, others are struggling to repair their boats, Gore said. Many did not have insurance.

“While we are grateful for that help at the state level, we really need better federal legislation to protect our small American commercial seafood industry,” Gore said. Gore said the domestic shrimp industry “struggles with inferior farm-raised foreign imports dumped into our country at cheaper prices and the high cost of diesel at the dock.”

Ms. Gore said the “Lexi Joe” was making shorter trips these days due to the high cost of diesel and needed supplies compared to the price paid for their catch.

Gore said she is also concerned about state legislation being pushed by local state legislators Sen. Jonathan Martin and Rep. Adam Botana which would reduce the size of the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve and allow for more development of the working waterfront.

Erickson and Jensen remain a key component of that working waterfront, offering fuel to shrimp boaters and the central location for where shrimp is unloaded by local shrimp boat captains. The Main St. business also offers fresh shrimp for sale.

For Fort Myers Beach resident Lee Melsek, the shrimp festival is a time to reminisce about when the festival first started in 1955. A group of shrimp dock owners and boaters asked his mother Lorraine to help organize a parade, Melsek said. “St. George Shrimp Dock (later Trico) Manager Larry Shafer, a friend of my parents, asked my mother to put a parade together and they would handle the shrimp boil at the island’s county park,” Melsek said.

“My mom invited the American Legion color guard and the island’s Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Brownies and Cub Scouts to march in it also. Some teachers at the Beach School and bicyclers also joined the parade. There was a drum and bugle corp and only a small replica of a shrimp boat pulled on a trailer. It began on Main Street, marched over the swing bridge and straight down old San Carlos Boulevard to the county park where the dock owners served shrimp and slaw,” Melsek said. His mother drove the only convertible in the parade, a 1949 Plymouth, and carried some of the Boy Scouts.

“The blessing of the shrimp fleet took place from the back of the Columbia Star shrimp boat at Columbia dock where Bayside Park and Nervous Nellie’s are today,” Melsek said. “The boats would pass the clergy on the stern of the Star and circle the bay. It wasn’t  until a few years later that they moved into the Gulf and the blessing came from the county pier.”

This year, the blessing of the shrimp fleet will begin Sunday at 10 a.m. with a Sunday service led by St. Raphael’s Episcopal Church, a blessing of the shrimp fleet at 11 a.m. and a celebration of pink golf shrimp at noon.

The shrimp-eating contest will take place at 2 p.m. at The Whale. Closing ceremonies and raffle drawings will take place at Bayside Veteran’s Memorial Park off Old San Carlos Blvd. at 4 p.m.

“The enthusiasm for this year’s festival has been off the charts,” Yelle said. “Folks are ecstatic to have festival back again this year. There’s a real feeling of accomplishment to bring back this community Touchstone event. Our 66th year and better than ever. People really like these passports, restaurants are excited for the special menus, live music Saturday and Sunday, parade goers are ready for a fun weekend.”

For more information on the Fort Myers Beach Shrimp Festival, visit fortmyersbeachshrimpfestival.com.