Fireworks display at the 20th annual Hampton Beach Seafood Festival

Display location:Hampton Beach
City:Hampton
State:Virginia
Date:Sept.19

Details: The good news: You can't have seafood without water.

Mother Nature provided plenty of H2O Saturday for day two of the 20th annual Hampton Beach Seafood Festival.

The bad news: Have we mentioned the water? How about the wind? The gray skies? The chill?

Back to the good news: Thousands didn't care and showed up anyway for a good time, good eats and the company of fellow landlubbers.

“The great thing about the Seafood Festival — it's our 20th anniversary, and the people that come, come every year,” said Jude David, chairwoman of the event. “A lot of people come rain or shine and they come from all over. A lot of our hotels are booked a year in advance with the same clientele.”

Still, the Saturday night fireworks had to be canceled and this year's attendance estimates may be lower than the recent count of 150,000 patrons.

“Because of the weather, the crowds are definitely thinner — last night and thinner today,” David said late Saturday afternoon. “Hopefully we'll make up some of that Sunday.”

Even with the rain, the giant white tents were still wall-to-wall people.

“It's always like this,” said Denise Levesque of Uxbridge, Mass.

“It's usually worse,” added her daughter, Kristen, while checking out bracelets at one of the 80 arts and crafts vendors.

The Levesques and Carol St. Hilaire of Mendon, Mass., have been coming to this festival for all 20 years — since Kristen was 3 years old.

What brings them back?

“The food, the crafts...” began St. Hilaire, who wore a Hampton Beach sweatshirt.

“... the fun,” added Levesque. “We can't miss it.”

Christine Winn and Kevin McKenzie of Milford, Mass., headed into the rain to enjoy their lobster tails from Ray's Seafood.

“It's delicious,” McKenzie said.

After eating they planned to do more walking around, shopping, people-watching and — later on — drinking and partying.

John and Cindy McQueen drove up from Amsterdam, N.Y., just for this festival.

“We were here 20 years ago and we both wanted to come back, so we picked this year,” Cindy said, as she and John stood in the center of a busy tent, chewing a lobster roll from Rye Harbor Lobster Pound.

How has the festival changed since they were last here?

“It's bigger, this is bigger than 20 years ago,” Cindy said.

“Oh, much bigger,” added a woman shuffling past through the crowd.

Inside the tent, representatives of the more than 50 Seacoast restaurants called out food offerings from seafood to Italian sausage and blueberry cobbler, while young environmentalists encouraged visitors to “help save the Earth for only $1” by buying a reusable bag.

A long line for free fish soup samples formed outside one tent where a culinary demonstration had just been hosted by the Pat Whitley Restaurant Show.

Later in the day, the crowds were entertained by The Drifters — “Under the Boardwalk,” “On Broadway” — and the Air Force Band of Liberty.

On the open strip, you could buy souvenirs such as lobster claw bottle opener magnets and 20th anniversary coasters for $4.95; or peruse standalone covered booths selling wallets, siding, cutlery, laser hair removal, cookies by design, chiropractic services, toe rings, waist chains, dog biscuits and even a “sniper” marshmallow gun.

“Marshmallow guns and name on rice necklaces — but it doesn't get much better than a marshmallow gun,” said proprietor John Begin, who demonstrated by shooting “low carb marshmallows” at passersby.

He has a shop in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, but this is his first year at the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival.

“If it wasn't raining it would be going great,” Begin said, noting that people were walking fast past the booths instead of stopping to browse as they would on a nice day.

“We're putting all our hopes into tomorrow,” he said.

As are the organizers at the Hampton Area Chamber Of Commerce.

“As I hear, Al Kaprielian is here on site and he promises us sunshine tomorrow,” David said.

Among the other events planned for the festival's close on Sunday, Sky Dive New England will be jumping out of planes at 5 p.m. sharp.

So if the rain scared patrons away, David hopes sun and fun wins them back.

“For the best in seafood and great bands and Kiddieland and the culinary chef demos and the skydiving at 5 — it's really great family fun,” she said.