If you live on the bluff, you already know the tell. When shrimp boats start clustering three-deep at the docks off River Drive and Tubby's parking lot fills before 6, summer has arrived in Thunderbolt. This year the season carries more than the usual rhythm. The town just closed out the fifth anniversary of a festival that had been dormant for nearly three decades, and it launches its first-ever sustainability event next weekend at Cesaroni Park. Between those two dates sits the argument this post makes: Thunderbolt's summer calendar is no longer borrowed from Savannah. It has become its own thing.
The Festival That Came Back After 30 Years
Most residents can rattle off the basics of the Blessing of the Fleet by now. Fewer know how recent its revival actually is.