{"id":19518,"date":"2025-10-24T21:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T21:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/19518\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T21:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T21:14:09","slug":"johns-pass-seafood-fest-renews-tradition-after-last-years-hurricane-decimate-pinellas-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/19518\/","title":{"rendered":"John’s Pass Seafood Fest renews tradition after last year’s hurricane decimate Pinellas County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. – John’s Pass Seafood Festival is back in business this year after suffering major damage from last year’s hurricanes.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

By early Friday afternoon, there were hundreds of people traipsing\u00a0up and down the main drags in John’s Pass, eating, drinking and shopping.<\/p>\n

READ: Beach Art Center reopening Friday, one year after suffering hurricane damage<\/a><\/p>\n

“It’s amazing, the weather is great, everyone is walking around happy, there’s no drama,” said one reveler.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

A year ago, there was destruction, shock and hopelessness.<\/p>\n

“[The recovery was] very, very difficult,” said Justin Benedetti of Creative Coastal Cuisine. “A lot of people lost their homes. Friends and family had four, five, six, eight feet of water in the house.”<\/p>\n

MORE: Applications open for Pinellas People First hurricane recovery programs<\/a><\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

In John’s Pass, city officials say 98 percent of businesses have been able to reopen and are relieved that the town is now in good enough shape to welcome tourists. Putting this event on again was a priority for Madeira Beach’s<\/a> city hall.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“The community showed a ton of resilience, a ton of pride, a lot of teamwork getting together, lifting their neighbors, lifting their fellow communities, even fellow businesses,” said Jay Hatch, the\u00a0recreation director for the City of Madeira Beach.<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

The festival goes on all weekend, until 9 p.m. on Friday, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The Source: The information in the story was compiled by FOX 13’s Evan Axelbank and information provided by the City of Madeira Beach.<\/p>\n

Pinellas County<\/a>Hurricane Helene<\/a>Hurricane Milton<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. – John’s Pass Seafood Festival is back in business this year after suffering major damage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,3125,1802,944,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628,221],"class_list":{"0":"post-19518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-hurricane-helene","10":"tag-hurricane-milton","11":"tag-hurricanes","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pinellas","14":"tag-st-pete","15":"tag-st-pete-headlines","16":"tag-st-pete-news","17":"tag-st-petersburg","18":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","19":"tag-st-petersburg-news","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}