Eastham's Windmill Weekend

This annual celebration, the weekend after Labor Day, has all the elements of a true small town festival. One of the highlights is a Sunday afternoon parade on Route 6 which closes that highway to traffic for several hours, but provides the perfect venue for everyone's participation. There are floats, local and nearby bands including school, military, bagpipe, and oldies entries, police and fire from all over the Cape, and an Air Force flyover. The sand sculpture contest at First Encounter Beach draws young and not so young sand artists and some surprisingly detailed work in great variety. Other events include an antique car show, contests between the town's cops and firefighters, an art exhibition, lots of food, and even more fun. Everything is worth seeing, but there isn't time...and get there early to find parking at the beach and to avoid the crowded back roads when the highway is shut down on Sunday. (Eastham has another all-town event later in the season when Holly Trolley Weekend has local merchants holding open houses, restaurants offering food on the run, and town and Elks sponsored special events for children, all connected by a free trolley ride.)

Wellfleet's Oyster Festival

Wellfleet celebrates Columbus Day Weekend with a town-wide fair. Lots of activities, but those for which it is named draw the big crowds. The winner of the oyster-shucking contest goes on to compete in the regional contest, and those shells really fly at the hands of these down-to-earth shellfishermen who spend their lives on the water or out on the sand flats harvesting the world-famous Wellfleet oysters. Chowder is the food-of-the-day.