As organizers gear up for the Charleston Seafood Festival this August, they plan to offer much of what the nearly two-decade-old event has become known for — seafood, live music and shopping.

But not everything will remain the same for the two-day seafood extravaganza.

Earlier this year the Charleston Merchants Association handed control of the festival over to the Charleston Volunteer Firefighters Association. The change in management could last for a year or longer into the future, said Rusty Shield, president of the Merchants Association and a fire captain for the Charleston Rural Fire Protection District, who wanted to keep the festival going.

He explained that the Volunteer Firefighters Association runs a pancake breakfast — the association’s No. 1 fundraiser — on each morning of the festival, and with past organizers wanting a break from the festival, he realized that money source could soon dry up. He said he approached members of the Volunteer Firefighters Association to take over.

“They weren’t willing to lose that, and besides, if it goes away for one year, they didn’t think it would ever be back,” Shield said. “You’ll see over 25,000 people there that weekend. So I’d say it’s a pretty big thing, especially for Charleston.”

This year the festival will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 16 and 17 at the Port’s inner basin. The breakfast begins at 7 a.m. on both days.

“The same people had been doing it year in and year out, and they were getting burned out,” Shield said. “Now, I’ve got roughly 40 people to do what five were doing, so it should make it a lot easier.”

Mel Campbell, a board member and former president of the Charleston Merchants Association, said her group has been running the seafood festival for about 10 years. It began as a fundraiser organized by the Charleston Fishwives in the late 1980s or early ’90s, Campbell said. Held on the third weekend of August, the festival typically features a full line up of live music, close to 100 different vendors with wares ranging from arts and crafts to food, and, of course, a focus on seafood. Campbell said the Merchants Association asks that food vendors — excluding those who just serve coffee or dessert — offer some sort of seafood dish on their menu, but that is more difficult these days with the state of the fishing industry.

Campbell said she sees handing the reins over to the Volunteer Firefighters as an opportunity to bring new ideas to the festival, while giving the merchants a needed break. She added they will remain on hand to help the firefighters if needed.

 “They’ll do things differently than we have in the past, and that’s good,” Campbell said.

One reason behind the change, Campbell said, is there aren’t enough merchants to work the event, as many are busy with their businesses and summer crowds. Also, organizing the event is a large undertaking that extends from January until the third week of August.

“It’s a lot of work,” Campbell said, adding that “people are too busy operating their businesses to do a bang up good job” with the event.

Turning over the seafood festival will mean a loss of funds for the Merchants Association, however, as it also is the top fundraiser for her organization. Campbell said the merchants will instead focus on the Charleston Crab Feed to bring in money to support the association’s goal of promoting businesses in Charleston.

“I think it’s become a bit of a tradition, and we’d hate to see it end entirely,” Campbell said of the festival. “It’s time for fresh blood.”