For those looking to combine food and fun this fall season, we offer a list of local festivals likely to suit every palate.
Roots & Rivers Festival
Saturday, September 12, 2-8 p.m. at Oyster Factory Park, Bluffton
This one is less “food festival,” more community block party with food trucks folded in. Roots & Rivers is put on by BlacQuity, a nonprofit built around supporting Black-owned businesses and artisans. The event is staged as a marketplace first, party second, with vendors, live music (Stee & The Ear Candy Band headlines this year), a beer garden, and a kids’ zone. If you’re coming strictly for a food festival, adjust your expectations. If you want to see a different side of Bluffton’s calendar than the typical seafood-and-art circuit, this is worth the trip to Oyster Factory Park.
Hilton Head Island Shrimp Festival
Saturday, September 19, 1-4 p.m. at Harbour Town, Sea Pines Resort
Now in its eighth year, this festival has grown into one of the tighter-run food events on the island: three hours, one lawn, more than 15 local chefs putting their own spin on shrimp, plus tastings from a dozen-plus breweries. Add in local vendors with specialty items from art to décor as well as a kids’ zone. The event overlaps with the Hilton Head Island Jam songwriter festival, so there’s Nashville talent playing while you eat. A portion of proceeds benefits the Boys & Girls Club of Hilton Head Island. Small footprint, high chef density. Get there early.
Lowcountry Fish & Grits Music Festival
Saturday, October 3, 12-6 p.m. at Lowcountry Celebration Park, Hilton Head Island
Fish & Grits is built around Gullah Geechee culture, and the food is the anchor for a lineup that runs folk, funk, jazz, spoken word, and R&B. There’s an on-site market with clothing, art, and other vendor goods alongside the food stalls.
Kiwanis Chili Cook-Off & Jeep Island
Friday-Saturday, October 9-10 at Lincoln & South Brewing Co., Lowcountry Celebration Park, The Bank
This year, the annual chili cook-off and the Jeep show are the same event, not two separate ones. This is the Hilton Head Kiwanis Club’s flagship fundraiser, and it’s been pairing chili with Jeeps for decades. Friday’s event is a meet-and-greet at Lincoln & South, with Saturday’s main event at Lowcountry Celebration Park (12-3 p.m.), with an after-party at The Bank. New this year is the Slider Showdown, with a dozen-plus local restaurants competing with $5-and-under sliders bolted onto the usual professional/amateur chili judging. Proceeds go to local youth charities.
Historic Bluffton Arts & Seafood Festival
Saturday-Sunday, October 17-18 in Old Town Bluffton
The festival itself runs as a week of programming leading into the main event. More than 100 artists from 10 states set up a juried fine art show alongside the area’s restaurants serving up local seafood and Lowcountry standards, with music and entertainment running both days. This is Bluffton’s marquee fall event and has been for more than two decades. If you have only one day, plan around Saturday.
Italian Heritage Festival
Saturday, October 17, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn
Heads up that this lands the same day as Bluffton’s Seafood Fest, so it’s a choose-your-adventure Saturday if someone wants both. The 16th annual version of this one leans hard into the classics: cheeses, breads, pasta, gelato, biscotti, and the yearly pizza-eating contest that’s become the unofficial mascot of the event. Free parking, rain or shine, family friendly – a nice counter-programming pick for anyone who’s seafooded-out by mid-October.
Hilton Head Oyster Festival
Friday-Saturday, November 6-7 at Shelter Cove Community Park, Lowcountry Celebration Park
Two distinct nights, two distinct vibes. Friday is the all-you-can-eat sit-down from 5 to 8 p.m., featuring steamed oysters with Lowcountry boil, seafood chowder, pulled pork, shrimp and grits, and chili at Shelter Cove Community Park. Saturday is the full festival day, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lowcountry Celebration Park, with local bands on the main stage most of the afternoon, artisan vendors and kids’ activities. This one closes out the fall food-festival run on the island, and it’s the rare event where the “festival day” and the “eating event” are genuinely worth treating as two separate outings rather than one.