Beach Archive

The Tunes by the Dunes concert series is back, and this time not only in Summer.

The Spring concert series will kick off Thurs., Mar. 10 with Rachel Clearman performing.

Sunshine and tens of thousands of people filled Gulf Boulevard on Navarre Beach island for the 36th annual Navarre Beach Mardi Gras Parade Feb 19. There were 60 parade entries this year, from krewes to businesses to community groups.

Celebrating 36 years of family-friendly fun, floats and beads, the Navarre Beach Mardi Gras Parade is set to roll rain or shine Saturday, Feb. 19 at 1 p.m. along Gulf Boulevard.

The parade starts at Indiana Street and Gulf Boulevard, and continues east on the boulevard, ending at the Navarre Beach Causeway. The event typically attracts tens of thousands of people – locals and tourists alike.

Events sponsored by nonprofit groups on Navarre Beach, especially during the high season, came under fire at last week’s Tourist Development Council meeting. Specifically, concerns were expressed about these events taking up parking spaces, a particularly valuable commodity now that tourism has increased threefold in the last half-dozen years.

For nearly three years, Christina Toms studied the behavior of bottlenose dolphins in local waters. She and other team members crossed back and forth across waterways including the Santa Rosa Sound, East Bay, Escambia Bay and Blackwater Bay.

Each year, students from the Navarre Beach Marine Science Station take a working/educational field trip to Key Largo at the Coral Restoration Foundation (more info at https://www.coralrestoration.org/)!

In his years of living on the 16th floor of Beach Colony Resort on Navarre Beach, Hardin McLean has seen a lot of seagulls, pelicans and ospreys.

Saturday, he saw something new.

The Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce is now accepting applications from bands that are interested in performing in the 2022 Tunes by the Dunes Free Summer Concert Series on Thursdays (June 23-July 28, 2022).

Tommy Greenwell can still remember the first time he paddled out into the waves near the Pensacola Pier. He was 10 years old and wanted to be like his older brother, an avid surfer.

That first day, he learned how to sit on the board.

Wander out to the end of the Navarre Beach Fishing Pier on just about any day of the year, and you’ll find folks fishing.