Nassau County Opening of the Beaches and Wild Amelia 2026

The Nassau County Opening of the Beaches is May 16 and will include the 17th annual Wild Amelia Nature Eco/Expo Festival brought to us by Keep Nassau Beautiful. This year is expected to be the biggest gathering of nature lovers yet! 

The Eco/Expo Festival will be at Main Beach Park, featuring environmental exhibitors and vendors focused on the preservation and conservation of our local environment. Representatives from organizations that serve and protect our natural world, including state and national parks, will share their expertise and passion with the public. The festival will also include local musicians, live animals, and food trucks with an emphasis on eco-friendly service. A unique part of the Eco/Expo features the Kids’ Markets, where children will showcase and sell their homemade goods. 

Additional Wild Amelia activities will last for 10 days, starting on May 8 with the Sunset River Boat Cruise fundraiser, which you can sign up for at Keep Nassau Beautiful.

Wild Amelia activities will end Sunday, May 17 with Concerts for Conservation — a donations-based fundraiser with an open mic format; musicians and vocalists will play music and sing.

There are so many ways to participate in Wild Amelia, including: kayaking, nature hikes, fossil/shark teeth hunting, and bike and boating eco-tours. At the beach there will be professional sand sculptors, focusing on sea turtle conservation. Many activities for children will be offered, including wild story-time, the junior naturalist program, and arts and crafts. 

A nature photography contest for both adults and children is included this year, for our enthusiastic and talented photographers. You can attend the announcement of this year’s winners on Friday, May 15 at Fort Clinch State Park. 

The schedule for all the Wild Amelia activities is posted on the Keep Nassau Beautiful website.

Wild Amelia is now an education component of Keep Nassau Beautiful. KNB continues activities established by Wild Amelia, such as the Wild Nite Nature Presentation series, in which experts give informative talks on a great number of interesting topics. The last talk in this year’s series features the Wild Amelia’s critter-of-the-year, the raccoon, on May 12. 

Wild Amelia was started by Jody and Ray Hetchka 18 years ago. Many remember this power couple for their many years of dedication to their former business, Kayak Amelia. Jody and Ray have been longtime ambassadors for and interpreters of our local ecosystems. They have a passion for educating the public and sharing their infectious love of nature with others, which motivated them to form Wild Amelia.

I had the pleasure of speaking to Jody about why they created Wild Amelia. She stated that after many years of interacting with the public during their kayak tours, she realized that people love nature but may not understand how to positively interact with the wildlife, for example:

• Recognizing a gopher tortoise from a sea turtle, and not trying to return it to the sea!
• If you want to experience the delight of fireflies, stop using pesticides that kill them and reduce outdoor lighting around your home, especially in the summer months.
• By growing native plants in our yard, we feed the butterflies we love.

Jody and Ray recognize that on Amelia Island, we are blessed with natural areas such as Egans Creek Greenway and Fort Clinch State Park, and that we are surrounded by ecologically significant places worth understanding and protecting. These places include Cumberland Island National Shoreline to the north, Cary State Forest to the southwest, the Talbot Island State Parks and the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve to the south. They believe that education and awareness are key to living in harmony with nature.

Keep Nassau Beautiful conducts and promotes activities and educational opportunities that foster a personal appreciation of, pride in, and responsibility for the natural beauty of Nassau County, and are proud to continue the Wild Amelia traditions.