Ocracoke Island will celebrate colonial life in the 1700s with a living history encampment and the Battle of Ocracoke during Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree Friday and Saturday, Oct. 30 and 31, on the Berkley Manor grounds.
The festival focuses on historically accurate history, colonial life and family fun, produced by the Ocracoke Civic & Business Association Inc.
Events will begin on Friday with the Brigands Bazaar vendor fair from 2 to 5 p.m.
That night will feature a free showing of the 1932 classic movie “Frankenstein,” starring Boris Karloff, at 7:30.
Saturday (Oct. 31) events will begin with a Pirate Parade at 10 a.m. starting at Ride the Wind Surf Shop, through downtown Ocracoke to the Berkley Manor grounds where several living-history crews have set up a colonial encampment highlighting daily life, navigation, cooking and medicine, games for kids and artisan vendor booths.
Among the living history re-enactors are The Cannon Crew out of Beaufort. Led by Capt. Carl Cannon, who plays Blackbeard, will lay siege to Ocracoke in his period sloop, “The Adventure,” with cannons ablaze at 11 a.m. Ocracoke villagers will fight back from the shore.
Also pitching their camps will be members of Leviathan Nautical Living History, a group dedicated to the accurate portrayal of a ship’s company in the age of sail, spanning the years 1680 to 1865. They also will demonstrate colonial era firearms.
The Sword Circle, which hails from Raleigh, will demonstrate sword-fighting and will have a booth with candle making in which festival goers can try their skill. They also will have axe throwing and will set up an area for kids to learn sword fighting.
On Saturday at 11 a.m., historian Kevin Duffus will talk about “The Battle of Ocracoke,” in which Royal Navy Lt. Robert Maynard ambushed Blackbeard just off Ocracoke and killed him.
At 1 p.m. Saturday, the living history crews will reenact on shore along the NPS docks the sword fight in which Blackbeard met his demise at the hand of Royal Navy Lt. Robert Maynard.
Later, at 3:30 p.m., Duffus will test festival goers’ Blackbeard trivia.
Duffus also will do an interview on WOVV 90.1 FM Friday at 11:30 a.m. and will sign his books, including “The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate,” at Books to be Red at 1 p.m.
The event will conclude with a memorial service honoring the fallen sailors for both Blackbeard and Maynard.
A detailed schedule will be released later in October.
More details will be available online at www.ocracokeisland.net and both the Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree and OCBA Facebook pages where there will be updates in case of inclement weather.
Funding for the event is courtesy of the Ocracoke Occupancy Tax Board.
