OCRACOKE FIG FESTIVAL
August 7-8, 2026
at the Berkley Barn on Ocracoke Island, NC
Chef Jamie Davis of The Hackney, Washington, N.C.
Ocracoke Fig Festival to Host NC Chef Jamie Davis
Join us for a FREE, family-friendly celebration of Ocracoke's summer bounty!
The 13th annual Fig Festival will take place at the Berkley Barn on Ocracoke Island. The free festival features live music day and night, traditional Ocracoke square dancing, children’s crafts, talks by local fig experts, and vendor booths offering fig preserves, fig cakes, fig art, fig trees, fig beer, local cookbooks, and other fig-tastic items.
Ocracoke Fig Festival to Feature Washington, NC Chef Jamie Davis
This free, family-friendly event takes place August 6-8, 2026
on Ocracoke Island, NC
The 12th annual Fig Festival will take place at the Berkley Barn on Ocracoke Island. The free festival features live music day and night, traditional Ocracoke square dancing, children’s crafts, talks by local fig experts, and vendor booths offering fig preserves, fig cakes, fig art, fig trees, fig beer, local cookbooks, and other fig-tastic items.
Chef Jamie Davis hails from Jacksonville, North Carolina, but grew up with a dad in the Marines, so he moved around a lot before resettling back in his home state. He started working in his first restaurant at 16 years old as a dishwasher and worked his way up through the ranks to manager by the time he was 18. He joined the Army, and served in Iraq before attending culinary school in Savannah, GA. He is now the Executive Chef of The Hackney in Washington, N.C., where his connections with local fishers and love of seafood have garnered him a stellar reputation and a James Beard Best Chef Southeast Finalist 2024.
The showpiece of the Fig Festival is the Fig Cake Bake-Off, where bakers are invited to submit entries in one of more of three categories: Traditional, Innovative Dessert, and Savory, and young bakers are encouraged to enter the Youth category. Chef Jamie is excited to serve as a guest judge at the Bake-Off.
Chef Jamie will be the Fig Festival’s special guest at the annual Savory Fig Dinner on Thursday evening, August 6, 2026. This popular fundraising event features savory fig dishes from local chefs and one special item made by Chef Jamie. Space is limited; tickets for this evening will go on sale on Wednesday, July 1, 2026.
During the weeks leading up to the Fig Festival and following, island eateries will offer fig-infused menu items both savory and sweet to celebrate peak fig season. Take some Ocracoke sweetness home with you – local fig preserves are available in several island shops.
Ocracoke Fig Festival will also continue to support the annual John Simpson Memorial Scholarship, funded by festival proceeds. The scholarship is awarded to an Ocracoke graduating senior each year. John is remembered as a Fig Festival vendor, award-winning Fig BBQ sauce creator, fig tree grower, artist, decoy carver, and supporter of Ocracoke’s heritage events.
The Ocracoke Fig Festival is sponsored by Mended Wing Theatre Company, a grassroots, arts-based, registered 510(3)(c) organization with a home base on Ocracoke.
For more information, including details about the Bake-Off, donor information, vendor spaces, volunteer opportunities, and the Fig Festival schedule, visit ocracokefigfestival.com
In our Second Year of the Scholarship:
Donate to the John Simpson Memorial Fig Festival Scholarship to help an Ocracoke School student in the Class of 2026!
Donations by check can be made to Mended Wing Theatre Co. (please put John Simpson scholarship in memo line) and mailed to Ocracoke Fig Festival, PO BOX 544, Ocracoke, NC 27960.
Donate in person with cash, check, or credit card during the 2026 Fig Festival.
Click here for an online donation link.
If you've attended the Fig Festival, you'll remember John and Trudy's booth where they sold fig preserves, fig trees, Trudy's fig cakes, John's hand-carved fig pins, and John's fig BBQ sauce. They also served as hosts for the Fig Dinners each year.
John was also a decoy carver and helped to form the Ocracoke Decoy Carvers Guild and Ocracoke Waterfowl Festival held each spring.John was a supporter, board member and deejay for WOVV, our local radio station.
He was also a longtime employee at the Variety Store and Hardware Store, so many visitors know him from there.
We're so happy that John was our featured artist in 2024.
