Satisfy your inner pirate during North Carolina’s oldest and best pirate invasion!
Beaufort Pirate Invasion activities will happen in different locations around the historic downtown area. The actual Invasion will take place at the Lynn Eury and Grayden Paul Park right on the waterfront in Beaufort.
At the Beaufort Historical Site located on Turner Street, you will be able to walk through our historical encampment where you can see the ship’s surgeon at work, watch sailors make baggy wrinkles and tie knots. A local Blacksmith will be onsite working over a flaming fire and demonstrating the process of making tools. You will enjoy watching as pirates go about their daily routines preparing meals, making ropes and cleaning weapons.
On Friday at 3:00 pm you can enjoy a re-enactment of a 1747 invasion on the town of Beaufort. Come watch as Spanish raiders invade our shores and try and capture some of the ladies from town as well as provisions. Beaufort women can be a tough lot and may fight back… Will the town be able to fend off the attackers? Maybe…..
Join us for our annual ‘Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Run’ 5K race, Saturday morning. Registration starts at 7:00 am and Race starts at 8:00 am with a BLAST from Capt Blackbeard’s cannon!
Saturday at 3:00 pm, ‘The Battle of Blackbeard’ will commemorate the 300th Anniversary of the Infamous Pirate who sailed our waters and left a historic treasure here, the Queen Anne’s Revenge…
On Middle lane, Vendors will be set up with various booths of food and fun and pirate gear.
Along the waterfront there will be a multitude of activities for all ages to enjoy, such as musical entertainment, magic shows, children’s costume contests, a balloon artist, stilt walker, storytelling, and vendors. Aspiring young pirates can enjoy spontaneous shenanigans as nefarious characters roam the streets and shops, engaging in mock battles, bursting into song, and posing for pictures.
Oh, and don’t think for one minute that there will be no pirates around. Beaufort will be full of them and you can enjoy the search around town for Beaufort’s Most Wanted Pirates.
Stay tuned in the weeks ahead as we add more events to the schedule.
Thunder & Spice
Thunder and Spice love to sing and harmonize traditional Celtic, Renaissance, Seafaring, American and World folk music with theatrical flair and a bit of history thrown in! Years of music and theatre experience make this performance group extremely versatile: they will perform in modern or period dress, customizing their costumes for your specific occasion. They perform music that will make you get up and dance, sing along, or just close your eyes and listen to the wonderful harmonies.
House of Cadarn
House of Cadarn is a musical trio comprised of Roger Collins, Stacy Cassidy and Daniel Gichner. We specialize in maritime, nautical and Celtic music, songs of ships past present and future among other random silliness. Music has always been how people passed the time either for enjoyment and entertainment or to make work go more smoothly or to pass stories and tradition for one generation to the next.
The Cannon Crew
The Cannon Crew of Beaufort, NC is dedicated to “telling the story” of our heritage and history of pirates in the Carolina’s during the Golden Age of Piracy by entertaining and educating the public on the lifestyles both land and sea, of pirates, settlers and villagers. From cannon demonstrations, to our 18th century fishing/pirate encampment, we invade by land and sea.
Sinbad & MEKA II
“Steady as she goes an’ stand t’yer guns”. Words spoken hundreds of times as Captain Horatio Sinbad, a modern day swashbuckler born at least 250 years too late, steers his dauntless hermaphrodite brig, Meka II, into battle. Captain Sinbad has lived aboard continuously for over four decades making Beaufort, NC his homeport. Cheer on Sinbad as he and his pirate fleet attack our shores!
Shadow Players
For over seventeen years the Shadow Players Stage Combat Group has brought fun, excitement, and entertainment to Pirate Festivals, Renaissance Faires, general fairs and festivals, movie premiers, and charity events throughout the U.S.
The Motley Tones
This talented troupe sings madrigals for the King by day, pub songs for the hoi polloi at night and love songs and sailor songs all the day long! We’re thrilled to have them perform with us again this year at the Invasion.
Captain Jim’s Pirate Magic
Magic, mystery & pirate history! Captain Jim’s vessel went down at sea causing the loss of his leg below his knee. Now with an authentic wooden peg leg & parrot, Captain Jim tells tall tales mixed with intriguing closeup magic of cards, coins & more. Along with his lovely wench, Sea Shel, they perform professional stage illusion shows. An Invasion favorite for Pirates of all ages!
Braze
Black powder weapons master, storytelling, and singing, Braze travels the high seas looking for adventure. Bedecked in authentic garb and props, he creates mischief and mayhem wherever he goes with swashbuckling swordplay and a sharp wit…bedazzling one and all with tall tales and sea stories from the magical days of pirates and buccaneers.
Cascabel
Black powder weapons master & silversmith Cascabel the high seas looking for adventure. Bedecked in authentic garb and props, he creates mischief and mayhem wherever he goes with his swashbuckling swordplay and sharp wit…bedazzling one and all with tall tales and sea stories from the magical days of pirates and buccaneers.
Rusty Cutlass
Rusty Cutlass is a band of Pirates from Central Florida. They are all full-time professional performers, so when they invade the stage you can expect lots of entertainment, harmony, and good times. The Rusty Cutlass performs authentic Sea Shanties, Pirate songs, Traditional Irish tunes, Tavern songs, Contemporary Nautical favorites and more, most with close vocal harmonies.
Blackbeard’s Crew
Blackbeard’s Crew, founded in the year 2000, is a living history performance group dedicated to the accurate representation of seafaring life in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as it relates to Black Beard, specifically the time period between1650-1730 better known as “The Golden Age of Piracy”. The Crew has invaded Beaufort annually since 2006.