Hervey Bay Seafood Festival replaced with new event
Hervey Bay’s annual seafood festival will not go ahead this year and has been replaced with another celebration. We reveal all the details here.
Fraser Coast
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Fraser Coast Flavours is set to replace the Hervey Bay Seafood Festival after 21 years of celebrating the iconic event.
Fraser Coast Tourism and Events general manager Martin Simons said the time had come to expand on the festival and make it a broader event that would celebrate the cafe culture and beach lifestyle of Hervey Bay.
Mr Simons said seafood would still play a significant role in the festival, but there would be other elements as well, drawing on the success of Maryborough Relish Food & Wine Festival and tailoring it for Hervey Bay.
He said the event had grown from its roots as a festival focused on the local seafood industry into an event that would be more of a picnic by the beach, giving it the opportunity to expand.
The new vision for the festival would include celebrity chefs offering demonstrations and food preparations tip along with entertainment.
Mr Simons said organisers were not unmindful of the tradition of the seafood festival.
The event would be heavily promoted to inform the public of the change, he said, hoping to keep the crowd that turned up for the seafood festival every year and continue to grow on that.
“It’s going to be a great party,” he said.
The new festival will include two live music stages with a line-up of local and Queensland artists, two bars with Queensland breweries and distilleries and a selection of ticketed events.
The seafood festival had come under some criticism in recent years for moving from its original location in Urangan and for running out of seafood at the event.
Mr Simons said the criticisms had been taken into account but were not the reason for changing the event.
The event will be held at Seafront Oval in Pialba on September 2.
Pre-sale tickets will be available from July 3 for $10 and available online.
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