Port Phillip Mussel and Jazz Festival to rock South Melbourne Market
‘Shuck don’t chuck’ is the message for seafood fans who are expected to devour more than 200,000 mussels at this year’s Mussel and Jazz Festival. Here’s what else is on offer.
Inner South
Don't miss out on the headlines from Inner South . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A popular Melbourne seafood festival is flexing its green muscle by supporting a campaign to restore shellfish reefs in Port Phillip Bay.
South Melbourne Market’s Port Phillip Mussel and Jazz Festival has joined the Shuck Don’t Chuck project for the event.
MORE FOOD NEWS
ICONIC AUCTION HOUSE TRANSFORMED IN TO MEDITERRANEAN EATERY
REBEL DONUTS POPS UP IN HAWTHORN EAST
SCANDI CAFE OPPEN JOINS WINDSOR FOOD SCENE
The initiative is run by The Nature Conservancy and aims to recycle mollusc shells to use for rebuilding shellfish reefs.
Festival goers are expected to eat more than 200,000 mussels during the two-day event this weekend.
After enjoying a range of dishes including mussel paella and wok-cooked drunken mussels, revellers are asked to put their used shells into special bins for recycling.
The shells will then be cured, combined with limestone rubble and returned to the sea floor as a “settlement substrate” for juvenile oysters and mussels to cement onto, and ultimately rebuild new shellfish reefs.
South Melbourne Market General Manager Ian Sumpter said the collaboration was another way the market was working to be as sustainable as possible.
“This partnership enables us to reduce our environmental footprint by decreasing waste and landfill, while helping … restore our bay’s precious shellfish ecosystems,” he said.
Port Phillip Mayor Dick Gross said the Shuck Don’t Chuck program was a good fit for the council’s Love Our Bay campaign.
“Festival-goers can head along to one of Melbourne’s most unique festivals — a seafood street party celebrating some of the city’s hottest jazz artists — knowing they also have the opportunity to give back to their bay,” he said.
Launched last year, the festival celebrates the humble mussel.
Some of Melbourne’s top chefs and restaurants are on board, including South Melbourne Market traders and eateries Aptus, South Melbourne Seafood, Bambu, Claypots Evening Star, Paco y Lola, Köy and Simply Spanish.
The festival will also feature an impressive line-up of jazz acts such as The Senegambian Jazz Band, The Sugarfood Ramblers, Horns of Leroy and Chelsea Wilson.
There will also be fun for the kids, including ice cream, face painting, and comical stilt walking duo the Bouncing Beach Patrol.
Both sides of Cecil St will be closed between Coventry and York streets to allow plenty of room for festival goers to relax and enjoy the atmosphere.
The event runs on both days from 12pm to late.
southmelbournemarket.com.au/mussel-festival/
MORE NEWS
DRUNK SORRY FOR GAY PHONE PRANK
BAYSIDE TOY LIBRARY SESSIONS OPENED UP TO KIDS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
Brighton pad sells for $1m less than it fetched 12 months ago
A Brighton house has sold for a whopping amount, seven-figures below what it fetched a year earlier. The home features a rooftop hot tub spa, plus a sauna, bar and games and billiards room.
Designer’s Brighton home has basement turntable, sauna
Designer Kirsty Ristevski’s latest ‘Golden Mile’ project is packed with features, but it’s the unexpected ones that make this $7m home ‘one of a kind.’