Twenty years before Jamestown, there was Roanoke Island. Roanoke Island Festival Park is an interactive family attraction that celebrates the first English settlement in America.
The settlement didn’t survive, but the history, adventure and family fun did.
The centerpiece of the 25-acre island park, across from the Manteo NC waterfront, is the Elizabeth II, a representation of one of the seven English ships from the Roanoke Voyage of 1585. Climb aboard and help set the sails, plot your course and swab the decks! Also visit the Settlement Site and try a straw and feather beds, woodworking, and games. See the blacksmith fashion his 16th century wares. Explore 400 years of Outer Banks history in the interactive Roanoke Adventure Museum, for all ages. See the Legend of Two-Path film and coming in late 2008, the American Indian Town and Cultural Education Center. The town will feature opportunities for guests to learn about the vital and vibrant culture, heritage, and traditions of the American Indians in our region. It will include a wide variety of true-to-scale structures, role-play environments, and places to explore, plant, dance, build and play.
In the summer, enjoy The University of North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Performance Festival where drama, dance and musical performances are held daily. Additional performances are scheduled throughout the year. Enjoy the on-site Art Gallery, with monthly changing exhibits, the Fossil Pit, Museum Store, Outer Banks History Center and marsh-side boardwalks that surround the site. Walk across the bridge to the NC Maritime Museum on Roanoke Island, just a block away, which features a working boathouse and the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse. For More information call (252) 475-1500 or visit roanokeisland.com.
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