Outer Banks Posts

Mark your calendars because the 20th Annual Watermelon Festival is right around the corner! Join us for a classic summertime tradition packed with family fun, awesome prizes, and sweet treats 🍉
📍 Kitty Hawk Kites, Nags Head, NC
🗓 August 6th | 10 AM – 4 PM

What to expect:
🎯 Classic games & competitions
🎨 Face painting, arts & crafts
🍔 Delicious food & tons of watermelon fun!
🎟 Admission: FREE to attend! (Tickets required to play games and eat)

Best of all, this event supports the Outer Banks Bicycle & Pedestrian Safety Coalition to help keep our local community safe on two wheels! 🚲🚦

This Weekend at Waterside Theatre 🎭 Experience history under the stars at Waterside Theatre.
✨ Join us Friday and Saturday night and come early for the free Native Pre-Show at 8 PM, featuring stories, songs, and traditional dances performed by Indigenous members of The Lost Colony company. Then stay for America's longest-running outdoor drama at 8:30 PM.

The forecast is looking beautiful for a summer evening on Roanoke Island, making it the perfect weekend to experience the most exciting night on the Outer Banks. We can't wait to welcome you!

We've got bonsai galore at Silver Bonsai Gallery - great selections of Dwarf Jade, Ficus, Japanese Juniper, Sweet Plum, and more! New to bonsai and yearning to learn more? Not only are we happy to answer your questions, we also have great books like The Bonsai Handbook by David Prescott and Introduction to Bonsai: A Complete Illustrated Beginners Guide to help you learn this wonderful art form!

Come on by and see our trees!

Today's Vendor Spotlight is on a new addition to our 2026 Fig Festival lineup: Dawn Marr and her daughter Juniper of The Painted Turtle. Dawn and Juniper fell in love with Ocracoke and its figs 5 years ago. Juniper is 13 and is a self-taught crochet artist. Dawn is an elementary art teacher and artist. They are traveling from Ohio with their dachshunds creating art and getting their feet in the sand and salt water.

They will have fig earrings, fig ornaments, and crocheted figs! Some of their handmade items are inspired by Ocracoke's beloved Ocracats, and they are donating a percentage of their proceeds to the Ocracats Foundation.

You'll find The Painted Turtle booth inside the Barn next Friday and Saturday!

The Official 2026 Halloween Island Passport design is revealed! 👻🎃🐈‍⬛

Passports will be available for purchase beginning October 1st at all of the participating Halloween Bars for a $5 donation to the Outer Banks Relief Foundation, and allows you to wind your way through over a dozen uniquely-themed Halloween bars throughout the Town of Manteo. We’re putting the “fun” in “fundraising” again this year with five full weekends of “trick-or-treating for adults” brought to you by The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau and Kellogg Supply Company!

HALLOWEEN BAR — “FRANKENTENDER” A Mad Scientist Bar by Firetender 🦇🕸🪦

Always a local hotspot, the evil geniuses at Firetender return to Halloween Island again this year as “Frankentender,” a celebration of technological terror with themed food & cocktail menus that bring delightful fun to the madness within! Enjoy their killer pizzas, creepy pasta and local seafood prepared with care under the watchful gaze of Frankentender’s Monster by renegade professor Britton “Moondog” Ricketts!

Halloween Island is brought to you by Visit The Outer Banks & Kellogg Supply Company; it’s trick-or-treating…for adults! Stay tuned for more exciting Halloween bar announcements COMING SOON!

13 EERIE INNS: Where to Stay on Halloween Island — “THE HEART OF MANTEO” 🎃👻🧡

Located in the center of uptown, The Heart of Manteo Motor Lodge goes all-out for our month-long, town-wide charity bar crawl, and is located just a short stroll from all of the Halloween bars & spooky shops of Halloween Island!

Enjoy a relaxing October weekend at Manteo’s only motor lodge, newly renovated for style and comfort. But don’t expect to stay in your room; there’s so much activity around town in October, you’ll enjoy their soft cozy beds after a full day of fun! Book your stay at heartofmanteo.com or by calling (252) 423-3130 and rest your bones in comfort!

🍬🦇💀 Halloween Island is brought to you by Visit The Outer Banks and is presented by Kellogg Supply Company, October 1-31, 2026!

🍗 THE SAUCE HAS BEEN CHOSEN… NOW IT’S TIME TO COMPETE! 🍀

Our youngest wing connoisseur, 6-year-old Colin, made the trip from Chesapeake, VA with one important mission—to help us pick the perfect wing sauce for the All-American Wing Fling. After a very serious taste test (and a few sauce-covered smiles 😄), the verdict is in…

The competition sauce has officially been selected! Now we’re ready to take on some of the best restaurants on the Outer Banks this Saturday, August 1st, and we’d love to have your support! If you’re heading to the Wing Fling, stop by our booth, try our wings, and let us know what you think. We can’t wait to share what Colin gave his official seal of approval!

Wish Team McGrath’s luck! The Luck Is in the Sauce. 🍀🍗💚

This Saturday 🔥 Come out to the first-ever All-You-Can-Eat Chicken Wing Festival at the Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo! Guests will sample wings from some of the region’s favorite restaurants as attendees vote to help crown the ultimate Wing Fling Champion. The event also features:

• Live music from The Deloreans with special guests, SoulOne
• Kid Zone with support from the North Carolina Aquarium& Fun Zone powered by Kitty Hawk Kites
• Mustang Outreach Program
• Local vendors and food trucks
• Cold beverages, games, giveaways, and more

Who’s Got The Sauce? See you there!

Today we have Fresh Tuna Salad on Special, still have a few Soft Shell Sammy's, Flounder, Green Beans, Mac & Cheese changing to Local Sweet Corn on the Cob for Dinner. Last Day for Tomato Cheddar Soup!😋