A taste of the sea: Plymouth set to host Seafood Festival this weekend

The eagerly anticipated annual Plymouth Seafood Festival will take place on the city’s Historic Barbican and Sutton Harbour this weekend (20th – 22nd September) from 10am – 5pm each day. This three-day celebration as part of the Ocean City Festival highlights the city’s enduring relationship with the sea, traditional fishing industry, as well as its growing reputation as a food lover’s haven.

Showcasing the fantastic quality of seafood available in Plymouth with a range of events on offer for seafood lovers from the Fish Filleting Championship to the Little Nippers Crabbing Contest. Both local and celebrity chefs will demonstrate a range of mouth-watering dishes from the catch of the day on the Cookery Theatre stage while the Seafood Trail will highlight the best seafood dishes Plymouth’s eateries have to offer.

Highlights of the festival programme will include:

• Quayside Market

Seafood, local produce, live family entertainment including music and hands on activity with marine experiments and filleting fish. Jonty Depp (known to some as Captain Jack Sparrow) will also be amongst the crowd with other street performers. Local fishermen will bring their catch in and tell their stories. The Aquarium will be bringing marine science onto the streets with STEMFest and visitor can wander through the Fish Market on Sutton Harbour’s Heritage Trail.

• Cookery Theatre

The cookery theatre stage will be at the heart of this year’s Plymouth Seafood Festival with a packed programme of demonstrations. Showcasing the fantastic quality seafood available in Plymouth, local and celebrity chefs work their magic to show onlookers how to produce the most delicious culinary creations using a fresh catch.

• Seafood Trail

The Seafood Trail showcases some of the best, freshest and more sustainable seafood dishes on offer from Plymouth Waterfront restaurants and cafes. Book early to avoid disappointment. Offer runs until Sunday 22nd September unless otherwise stated.

• The Southern Star lands its catch - Commercial Wharf

Local fishermen Ben Squire and Sid the Squid explain the species caught and the sustainable fishing methods used. The masked ninja filleter is unleashed to demonstrate the art of filleting the catch for the pan. This event will take place at 12.30pm on Saturday and 12pm on Sunday.

• Plymouth’s Fish Filleting Championship

Five heavy weight fish players in Plymouth go head to head in a speed filleting contest at 3pm on Saturday.

• The Little Nippers Crabbing Contest - The Boathouse Cafe

The Crabbing Contest offers something for the kids, families can check in at 11am on Sunday to take part. Entrance fee is £5 including crab line, bait and bucket. Official weigh in at 2pm on the main stage. Trophies and prizes will be awarded to the winner and the two runners up.

The Festival itself coincides with the development of a new sustainable fishing scheme in Plymouth where the city’s restaurants have been given an opportunity to make Plymouth the first city in the world to be assessed for its new Fish2Fork Blue City award. The award would set Plymouth apart as a world-leading city for seafood sustainability and is the vision of a partnership between National Marine Aquarium, Destination Plymouth and Plymouth University Marine Institute who have teamed up with Fish2Fork.

The Fish2Fork Blue City award will mean that at least half of the city’s restaurants have received a blue fish rating, reflecting that the restaurant is acting sustainably in choosing its seafood and engaging customers with information about the credentials of food served.

Almost 100 restaurants across the city have been approached by Fish2Fork and the National Marine Aquarium to find out details about the origins of their seafood. The next steps for the project is for the restaurants to be reviewed by Fish2Fork, so an official rating for each restaurant can be established. To find out more about Fish2Fork visit www.fish2fork.com.

After rebranding itself as 'Britain’s Ocean City', Plymouth continues to be dedicated to both highlighting and protecting the resources its waters provide so that future generations can continue to enjoy them. In working in partnership with the National Marine Aquarium and Plymouth University Marine Institute, Destination Plymouth believes events like the Seafood Festival and initiatives such as Fish2Fork will help to educate visitors on the city’s relationship with the sea and the importance of marine conservation and sustainability.

For more information on the Ocean City Festival visit: www.visitplymouth.co.uk/oceancityfestival