A sampling of Sussex County annual festivals include:

Seaford Heritage Weekend

Held on Memorial Day weekend on the grounds of the historic Ross Mansion in Seaford, the Heritage Weekend features Civil War re-enactors, period music, vendors, mansion tours and carriage rides.

Hosted by the Greater Seaford Chamber of Commerce, the festival also boasts a Miss and Little Miss pageant and plenty of demonstrations, including soap making, crafting and blacksmithing.

Selbyville Old Timer's Day

The Selbyville Old Timer's Day celebration was started in 1956 by the town's downtown merchants and was originally a three-day sale designed to bring people into the town's downtown area. The event was named Old Timer's Day because merchants would dress up in vintage clothing for the day.

Now run by the Town of Selbyville, a highlight of the event is one of the biggest classic car and truck shows in the region. The event is held each year in mid-June.

Laurel Independence Day Celebration

While there are many July 4^th celebrations in the county, the one held each year in tiny Laurel has become one of the biggest.

Run each year by the Laurel Chamber of Commerce, the event features a huge parade through the center of town, dozens of vendors, competitions (including a very entertaining event pitting various Sussex County mayors against one another), carnival rides and one of the most impressive fireworks displays on Delmarva.

Nanticoke Riverfest

Held in early to mid-July each year, the Nanticoke Riverfest is one of the highlights of the western Sussex County festival season. Featuring live entertainment, craft and food vendors, a carnival, a children's area and much more, the event is held in the downtown area not far from the historic Nanticoke River.

The highlight of the three-day event is undoubtedly the float-in, where hundreds of festival goers take to the river on boats, intertubes, rafts really anything that floats and meander their way down the river en masse dressed up in some of the craziest outfits you'll ever see.

The family friendly Nanticoke Riverfest festival is organized by the City of Seaford

Big Thursday

Sussex County's Big Thursday celebration features live music, great food and tons of community fellowship in Millsboro's Cupola Park, at the headwaters of the Indian River.

The historic celebration, originally held in neighboring Oak Orchard, dates back to 1852 when the state of Delaware first regulated the opening of the oyster-harvesting season.

Beginning that year, Delaware law prohibited the taking of oysters between May 1 and Aug. 10. Residents waited patiently for opening day when they busted loose with a fun-filled day of tonging and eating oysters ― that first year, the big day fell on a Thursday and the annual festival was born.

After being dormant for many years, it was revived in 1972 by the Greater Millsboro Chamber of Commerce and is still run by the chamber today.

Nanticoke Powwow

Held every year on the weekend after Labor Day, the Nanticoke Indian Powwow is one of the more popular and widely-attended events in Sussex County.

Though the gatherings date back many decades, the powwow, in its current form, has become a major festival in southern Delaware since its rebirth in the late 1970s. Today, thousands of people come from the First State and several neighboring states to enjoy two days of music, dancing, fellowship and culture.

It is also the major fundraiser for the Nanticoke Indian Association ― money raised at the event goes to support the tribe in many ways, including maintenance of their museum.

Hispanic Festival

Organized by El Centro Cultural, the Festival Hispano is held every year in Millsboro. Featuring traditional Latin American dance and music, the festival is popular with the area's growing Hispanic community.

In addition to regional and international musicians, the lineup features local singers and performers on a special children's stage.

Coast Day

Coast Day began in the 1970s and features hands-on exhibits, lectures, ship tours, crab races, a crab cook-off, a boat show and much more.

Held at the University of Delaware's Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes, the day focuses on the wonders of the sea and the importance of Delaware's marine and coastal resources.

Organizers estimate more than 200,000 people have attended Coast Day over the years to learn about marine research, explore the aquatic world and enjoy good food from coastal Delaware.

Apple Scrapple Festival

Where else in the world can you go to watch mayors from neighboring towns compete in a contest involving hurled projectiles of packaged meat products? Probably nowhere else than good ole Sussex County.

The Apple Scrapple Festival in Bridgeville has become a big autumn festival in the western reaches of the county, but in recent years visitors from throughout the county, the state and the region have frequented this unique, Sussex County event.

The Apple Scrapple Festival began in 1990 when Bridgeville residents began discussing ways of promoting the town and western Sussex's agriculture industry.

They chose to feature apples and scrapple for obvious reasons. Some of the best apples around are grown nearby and, as organizers pointed out, it's hard to drive through Bridgeville during the summer and not notice the distinctive smell of scrapple being processed.

RAPA Scrapple was incorporated in 1926 and has been in operation ever since.

The festival has grown from 2,500 visitors in 1992 to more than 25,000. It has become a major fundraiser for local community organizations and helps elevate awareness of the agricultural profession in southern Delaware.

Rehoboth Beach Autumn Jazz Festival

The Rehoboth Beach Autumn Jazz Festival is held every October at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center.

Different musicians are featured each year during the week-long event. Also featured is the annual Best Taste of Rehoboth cook-off, with prizes going out to the best seafood and chicken of the festival.

Sea Witch Halloween & Fiddler's Festival

For a frightening good time the week before Halloween, be sure to visit the annual Sea Witch Halloween & Fiddler's Festival in Rehoboth Beach.

Organized by the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce, the three day event boasts fun-filled activities for the young, and the young at heart. The highlight of the festival continues to be the parade down Rehoboth Avenue, where the famous helium-filled witch's head is carried down the street by several happy-go-lucky area residents.

World Championship Punkin Chunkin

There is arguably no festival in Sussex County that better personifies what can happen when a few good ole boys put their minds together than the phenomenon that is Punkin Chunkin.

What began as just a few local men tossing pumpkins around a field in 1986 has grown into the global event it is today. Participants now come from all over the world to see how far they can shoot the orange gourds across an open field.

The event is now three days long and features concerts, fireworks and lots of good ole Sussex County fun. Since 2007, it's been held in Bridgeville after organizers outgrew their Millsboro location.

Sussex County Return Day

Return Day is a unique slice of America you just can't witness anywhere else and, with Delaware's own Joe Biden now serving as vice-president of the United States, it's begun to garner more of a national audience.

Return Day is an event as rich in history as The First State itself. Dating back to as early as 1792, Return Day features a parade and festival two days after Election Day.

Stemming from colonial times when the public would congregate in Georgetown two days after the election to hear the results because it would take that long to deliver them to the courthouse by horseback the day is marked by a traditional parade around The Circle and the ceremonial burial of the hatchet by leaders of the county's political parties. The hatchet is buried in sand from nearby Lewes, the original county seat of Sussex.

The winner and loser of each race ride together in a horse-drawn carriage in a parade from Georgetown Middle School to The Circle, where they are announced and pass a reviewing stand. Other participants in the parade include current state officials, high school bands and local pageant winners.

During the ceremony, the town crier which, for years has been former mayor W. Layton Johnson appears on the balcony of the County Courthouse and reads the results of the election in Sussex County because, as he says, they are the only results that matter.