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While most people think of fall festivals as having something to do with pumpkins or apples, here on North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks the festivals often are built around fish.

Swansboro, NC which is pictured to the left just had their Mullet Festival which commemorates the opening of the bridges over the Whtie Oak River.

Morehead City which is nearby recently hosted the NC Seafood Festival which we attended last year.

We have already been to one church festival that is a Lobster Fest, and there is another scheduled this weekend.  We bought our tickets early since there is nothing more delicious than lobsters driven by refrigerated truck straight from Portland, Maine.

Still there are exceptions to the rule.  New Bern did a MumFest and Swansboro has a pig cook off in a couple of weeks, and Emerald Isle recently had a 50th birthday party.

These festivals by the nature of our geography are parties by the water.  We have become a culture that is defined as much by our group festivals as anything else.  I guess you call us the water party people.

Sometimes those parties spring up on strange places like Shackleford Banks or even on some low water beaches that disappear at high tide. 

It used to be that people in a town belonged to one or two churches. You church had a lot to do with your identity.  They often worked for the same company which occasionally defined people more than their religion.  Today, often your company provides your identity except for those of us who are contractors or escapees from the corporate world.

Those of us who are contractors might be defined by our professions.  Since I am a Realtor®  I can relate to other Realtors®.  As an independent contractor, my identity isn't strongly tied to the company I am with now.

Every time I go to one of these community festivals, I feel more and more part of the group.  I see some of the same people each time, and I wouldn't be going to the festivals if I didn't enjoy them. 

The festivals are self selecting. If there are big crowds, I don't go.  Other people who don't like crowds also avoid those events or time their visits carefully.  People who like seafood go to seafood festivals.  Add a little beach music, and the people standing around listening to music munching fish are probably people I can talk to easily.

I guess that why I didn't have a problem working the booth at the Mullet Festival. It was actually a lot of fun.

It was a little hard having a conversation over the music, but what the heck, it is a festival.  There are more pictures of festivals and our water borne society at my Crystal Coast archive of photos and slides shows.