Roanoke Island Festival Park

Roanoke Island Festival Park is coastal treasure of North Carolina. Established in 1998, the park encompassing 25 acres is an educational interactive delight for families who want a hands-on experience exploring 400 years of Outer Banks history. The park blazes a trail through a past that includes early Native American culture, early English settlements, 16th Century sailing ships and the Civil War. There is also plenty of hiking and picnic opportunities, hands on demonstrations, festivals throughout the summer season, a 3,000 seat pavilion for special presentations, an art gallery and a friendly, knowledgeable staff to answer visitors questions. Your journey back in time begins at the Festival Park's Visitor Center where you can get information on activities and purchase your admission tickets for the main features of the park.

Family adventure begins in The Rogues Gallery located in the 8,500 square foot Roanoke Adventure Museum where you can explore daily life in the early colonial English settlements. Want to dress up in a suit of armor or Native American garb? You can and also learn 16th century survival skills of the early settlers such as carpentry and candle making along with other necessary crafts of the period. Swashbuckling sword and flintlock demonstrations are also given and the Museum Store is open for shopping. You won't find the usual cast of characters in souvenirs here. Instead, educational books, gifts and nautical items are available, as well as games and toys. Enjoy a taste of North Carolina with gourmet food gifts with the unique character and flavor unique to the Outer Banks.

Before Sir Walter Raleigh set his sights on settlement there were plenty of Native Americans already here. You can enter the village of Native Americans to see how they lived and thrived in the region at the time, and then time warp to the Battle of Roanoke Island during the Civil War in the Civil War Tent. During the Union occupation of Roanoke Island, 3,500 freed slaves flocked to the area and created the Freedmen's Colony with shops and stores and is a trip through time to visit. Don't forget to peruse the merchandise in a turn-of-the-century (19th that is) general store.

When the first colonists sailed from England to settle in the New World in the late 1500's there were seven ships that sailed the high seas, and you can board the Elizabeth II which is a composite ship designed after a 16th Century vessel of the same type and named after one of them, the Elizabeth. Elizabeth II was completed and launched in 1983 and presented to the State of North Carolina as a Historic Site in July of 1984 during ceremonies commemorating the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first English ships to the North Carolina Outer Banks.