Schedule of events is at the end.
The Ocracoke community will celebrate the summer’s fig bounty at the 11th annual Fig Festival Aug. 1 and 2, with special guest chef Dean Neff.
The event will be held at the Berkley Barn and Manor and will feature live music, traditional Ocracoke square dancing, children’s crafts, talks by local fig experts and vendor booths offering fig preserves, fig cakes, fig trees, local cookbooks, and other fig-themed items.
The showpiece of the Fig Festival is the Fig Cake Bake-Off, where bakers are invited to submit entries in one of three categories: Traditional, Innovative, and Seafood, and young bakers are encouraged to enter the Youth category.
Neff is the owner and chef of Seabird in Wilmington – the sustainable seafood restaurant and oyster bar devoted to celebrating North Carolina’s coast — and is the new owner of Wilmington’s oldest seafood market, Zora’s Seafood & Kitchen.
Neff will be the Fig Festival’s special guest at the annual Savory Fig Dinner on Thursday evening, July 31, and will help judge the cake bake-off.
The weekend finale will be a dance with the Ocracoke Rockers.
New for 2025 is the Ocracoke Fig Festival’s partnership with Mended Wing Theatre Co. that tours small-cast productions of Shakespeare’s plays to schools, parks and other venues in the Southeast with a focus on affordability for the audience and sustainability for the artists.
Mended Wing is a registered 501(c) (3) organization with a home base in Ocracoke.
The players will stage performances of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on the festival grounds, adding a new element to the Fig Festival offerings.
All expenses for the Mended Wing performances will be covered by independent fundraising efforts.
Ocracoke Fig Festival will establish an annual John Simpson Memorial Scholarship to be funded by Fig Festival proceeds and will be awarded to an Ocracoke graduating senior beginning in June 2026.
Simpson, an island son who died earlier this year, is remembered as a Fig Festival vendor, award-winning Fig BBQ sauce creator, fig tree grower, artist, decoy carver, and stalwart supporter of Ocracoke’s heritage events.
In the weeks leading up to the Fig Festival and following, island eateries will offer fig-infused menu items.
Local shops will stock this year’s selection of fig preserves.
For more information, including tickets for the dinner, details about the Bake-Off, donor information, vendor spaces, volunteer opportunities, and the Fig Festival schedule, contact Sundae Horn at 252-921-0283,
or ocracokefigfestival@gmail.com. Details are online at OcracokeFigFestival.com.
The following is the schedule:
Friday, August 1
10 am to 5 pm: Vendor Booths
Noon to 11 pm: Beer & Wine
Noon-3 pm: Acoustic music on Manor porch (rain location inside Barn)
3-5 pm: Martin & Friends acoustic on Barn stage
4-6 pm: Fig BBQ sauce tasting contest – proceeds benefit John Simpson scholarship fund
4-6 pm: Fig Preserves Tasting Contest
5:30-7 pm: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on Manor porch
7-8 pm: Ocracoke Square Dance with Molasses Creek
8-11 pm: Raygun Ruby
Saturday, August 2:
10 am-5 pm: Vendor Booths & Silent Auction
Noon-11 pm: Beer & Wine
10 am-1 pm: Activities for kids – (tie dye, fig leaf modpodge)
11 am: Q & A with Chester Lynn, Barn porch
Noon: Q & A with Chef Dean, Barn porch
1:30 pm: Cakes on Display
2 pm: Judging begins, followed by Fig-for-all
3 -5 pm (or until sold out): Fish Fry with Ocracoke Seafood Company (Fish House)
3:30-4:30 pm: Molasses Creek on Barn stage
5:30-7 pm: Midsummer on Manor porch
7 pm: Awards & announcements; raffle drawing on Barn Stage
7:15-8 pm Live music with Lou & local kids on Barn stage
8-11 pm: Ocracoke Rockers on Barn stage
