3rd Annual Florida Keys Seafood Festival

Origin and Purpose of the Florida Keys Seafood Festival

The Seafood Festival celebrates our community by bringing families and friends together in a joyful and fun environment to sample the local catch. This family friendly event was conceived to showcase local seafood and the Keys' commercial fishing industry by providing the freshest seafood available. Each year our fishermen and women are proud to offer the community a variety of seafood at reasonable prices.

It is hoped that this festival will become an annual event that people can plan their vacations around. We also hope to raise money for the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association (FKCFA), an industry association to use in providing a sustainable future for the many local fisheries within the Florida Keys. With some of the proceeds from the festival, FKCFA sponsors scholarships for children of local fishermen from Key Largo to Key West.

The absence of a seafood festival in Key West has been obvious for many years. However, it took the devastating hurricane season of 2005 that wiped out 75% of the fishing gear to provide the needed motivation for finally making this now successful event possible. It took the combined efforts of the FKCFA and UF/IFAS/Monroe County Extension Services to make the first festival in 2006 possible. While the fishermen caught, cleaned, and cooked the seafood, the Extension staff organized and coordinated the logistics.

The fishermen and their families work hard at preparing the delicious seafood dishes. Not only will we have the best prices in town, we will also have the freshest shrimp, lobster, and two kinds of crab. While most people are familiar with stone crab, we will also have a unique treat with a special food booth serving deep water golden crab. In addition, you can enjoy conch salad, conch fritters, and conch chowder prepared with local recipes. Let’s not forget the sweets that will be available like Flan and Key Lime Pie. And of course beer and wine will be available as well as sodas and water.

This is a day of fun, food, and music you do not want to miss!

Click here to see Photo Gallery of the 2008 Seafood Festival.

Click here to see Photo Gallery of the 2007 Seafood Festival.

For information on the Florida Keys Seafood Festival contact:

Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen's Association

PO Box 501404

Marathon, FL 33050-1404

Scott Zimmerman, Executive Director

Phone: 305/619-0039

Fax: 305/634-4794

E-mail: fkcfa1@hotmail.com

Web site: www.fkcfa.org - Look for "Seafood Festival" on left-hand side