Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival

The Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival is an annual seafood and arts festival held in Niceville, Florida, United States, on the second-to-last weekend of every October. Visitors and booth openers come from as far away as Louisiana. The main attractions are music, food, especially fried mullet, and many kinds of arts and crafts.

This festival is named after the mullet, a fish found in abundance in the local waters. While commonly seen at the festival, the mullet haircut is not the origin of the name.

The festival was founded by Walter Francis Spence Jr. in 1976. It lasts three days, starting Friday afternoon and ending Sunday after dark. Alcohol is not served on Sunday. In recent years, the festival has typically had attendance over 100,000 for the weekend.

Chantal, Hollywood entertainment reporter for ABC's "Good Morning America," broadcast from the festival on Friday, October 20, 1989. During the broadcast, festival founder, Walt Spence, and local Jim Campbell demonstrated how to catch and fry mullet.^[1]

In 2009, a third annual Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival t-shirt made by Tailgate Clothing Company appeared in Season 2 of the HBO series, "True Blood" (Episode 3 - "Scratches"). A representative from the show said that she found the shirt on a Web site she used to outfit some of the characters. A Mullet Festival t-shirt had also appeared on the CBS comedy "How I Met Your Mother", according to Niceville City Manager Lanny Corbin.^[2]

Selected Musical Performers

2010 - Josh Turner, Joe Nichols, Brantley Gilbert, Jerrod Niemann, Ronnie McDowell, Damon Smith, Dr. Zarr's Amazing Funk Monster, The Tip Tops, The BluesCrabs, Bo Porter, Barry Fish Band

2009 - Billy Ray Cyrus, Blake Shelton, Chuck Wicks, Dr. Zarr's Amazing Funk Monster, Mustang Sally

2008 - Jason Aldean, Rodney Atkins, Sara Evans

2007 - The Blues Crabs, Blake Shelton, The Grascals, Gary Allan, Kenny Rogers

2006 - Travis Tritt, Lonestar, Trent Willmon, Blake Shelton

2005 - The Charlie Daniels Band, Terri Clark, Hot Apple Pie, Rockapella

2004 - David Lee Murphy, Restless Heart, Little Texas

2003 - The Charlie Daniels Band, Dierks Bentley, Montgomery Gentry

2002 - Ricky Skaggs, Trick Pony, Emerson Drive, Daron Norwood, Mountain Heart, Little Big Town

2001 - Diamond Rio, Little River Band, Trick Pony

2000 - Rick Springfield, Rascal Flatts, Tracy Lawrence, Eric Heatherly

1999 - Lonestar, Aaron Tippin, Sherrie Austin

1998 - Dixie Chicks, Rhett Akins, Ricochet, Exile

1997 - Neal McCoy, Exile

1996 - Lonestar, Ty Herndon, Mark Wills

1995 - Ty England, Puff Daddy

1994 - Daron Norwood

1993 - Mark Wills, Daron Norwood

1992 - Billy Ray Cyrus, Daron Norwood

1991 - The Temptations

1990 - The Drifters, The Platters

1989 - New Grass Revival

1988 - New Grass Revival, The Tams

See also

• List of Florida food festivals

External links

• Official website
• City of Niceville website
• Food Fest! Your Complete Guide to Florida's Food Festivals

References

1. ^ Rolfsen, Bruce, "'Mullet gets shot at TV,'" Northwest Florida Daily News, Saturday 21 Oct 1989, p 1A.
2. ^ Brooks, Robbyn, "'True Blood' fad: Mullet Festival,'" Northwest Florida Daily News, Monday 14 Sep 2009, p A3.