GULF SHORES — With the Annual National Shrimp Festival canceled due to Hurricane Isaias, artists and business owners in Gulf Shores tried to make up for lost sales with a Shrimp Fest Art Walk held Saturday, Oct. 24.

The event was sponsored by the Water Village Arts & Entertainment District Merchants Association. The art walk featured several artists and vendors, mostly from the local area, offering fine art, crafts, clothing and more, with some businesses providing space for artists to sell their work.

One of those businesses was Big Beach Brewing. Amber Dion, general manager of the brewery, said Big Beach Brewing would have had its beer available at Shrimp Fest and that it was also going to be its first year as a merchandise vendor at the festival before its cancellation.

Following the festival's cancellation, Dion said she contacted all the merchants in the association about organizers' discussions to bring everyone together in light of Gulf Shores' flagship event being canceled.

"We were sad, professionally and also personally, about the cancellation of Shrimp Fest, along with everyone else, but things happen, and so this was a way for the community to just kind of rally around these local artists and hopefully have some nice weather today, which we have, and get everyone together, drink a beer and have some fun."

Artists and vendors at Saturday's art walk were pleased with the event in the wake of the cancellation of the 2026 Shrimp Fest.

One of them was Olivia MacDougall, who owns Copper Studio Art, which specializes in stained glass cut and crafted by MacDougall. She was set to be one of the vendors at this year's Shrimp Fest before it was called off. Despite MacDougall calling the cancellation "a huge bummer," she said Saturday's art walk was "probably one of my best days ever."

"Honestly, I'm really impressed that we were able to pull this together in such a short amount of time and it's been really awesome," MacDougall said. "I didn't have humongous expectations for it, but they have absolutely been exceeded, so (I'm) super thankful."

Another artist who was set to be a vendor at Shrimp Fest was JD Swiger, who planned to debut a new series of original paintings, called "Summer Knights," at the festival.

"I think it's really important to the artists that have worked really hard behind closed doors to try to produce something that will not only strike interest in the viewer but also pay bills, so I think that being here is a bit of a redemption for a lot of people, myself included," Swiger said. "I can honestly say that I'm just really appreciative that anyone working behind the scenes brought this to fruition. I think it's a really big deal."

Swiger said he makes different art for Shrimp Fest every year to keep things interesting, with prints from his "Summer Knights" series and shirts available at his booth. He noted that he had seen both familiar and unfamiliar faces, even with the Annual National Shrimp Festival canceled.

"I think that the most important thing for me to remember is that this is everyone's first impression of what this area could look like in the future for artists and for events, and I think that today is the first impression had a really positive impact on locals and tourists as well," Swiger said.