Florida Keys Seafood Festival
The 7th Annual Florida Keys Seafood Festival was held on Saturday, January 14, 2012, from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., at Bayview Park (corner of Truman Avenue & Jose Marti Drive) in Key West.
Click here to see the 2012 poster!
The 2012 Festival included the following:
On the Menu - Fried Fish, Grilled Spiny Lobster, Stone Crab Claws, Pick 'n Peel Key West Pink Shrimp, Smoked Fish Dip with crackers, Fried Clam Strips, Lobster Bisque, and Conch Fritters, Conch Chowder & Conch Salad. Hot dogs and hamburgers also were for sale. Beverages sold were beer, wine, water, and soda. Desserts, such as Estella's Famous Flan, Key Lime Pie, and soft ice cream were available for purchase.
Entertainment - Emcee Captain Marlin Scott
Live music started at 11:00 a.m. and concluded at 8:00 p.m.
Bands that performed:
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Misery Loves Company
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Rejects
4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Doerfels
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Howard Livingston & the MileMarker
24 Band
The Key West Comparsa Dancers performed at approximately 4:00 p.m.
Raffles were drawn after 3:00 p.m. between band breaks.
Children's Activities - Bounce House, Giant Slide, Touch Tank, a Mallory Square performer, and much more!
Please note: All information listed is subject to change, except for the date (1/14/2012) and time (11 a.m. to 8 p.m.), rain or shine.
For more information regarding the Florida
Keys Seafood Festival, call Vicki Gale, Event
Coordinator, at (305) 872-9026, Fax (305) 292-4415, or e-mail:
vickigale@bellsouth.net
or send correspondence via U.S. mail to:
Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen's
Association
PO Box 501404
Marathon, FL 33050-1404
Website:
www.fkcfa.org
Proceeds from FKCFA's cookbook goes toward their scholarship fund
for Florida Keys students.
To order the cookbook "Ocean Flavors and More!" call Vicki Gale at
305-872-9026 or e-mail her at
vickigale@bellsouth.net.
The cookbook will also be on sale at the 7th Annual Key West Seafood
Festival for $15!
2012 Sponsors:
Click on a logo to go to the website.
More Sponsors:
Atlantic & Gulf Fishing Supply Co.
D & D Seafood Corp.
Dolphin Hydraulics, Inc.
Elite Sky Seafood
Famunda Seafood
Gulf Manufacturing Co.
Hak Hide, LLC
Key Largo Fisheries, Inc.
Key West Marine Hardware, Inc.
M & M Becker Seafood, Inc.
Monroe County Public Works/Solid Waste
Signs Unlimited
Suburban Propane
Toledo Sales
Tom Ryan, Inc.
The date of the 8th Annual Florida Keys Seafood Festival is Saturday, January 19, 2013.
To see a "Slide Show" of the 2012 Seafood Festival, click here.
To see the Photo Gallery of the 2011 Seafood Festival, click here.
To see the Photo Gallery of the 2010 Seafood Festival, click here.
To see the Photo Gallery of the 2009 Seafood Festival, click here.
To see the Photo Gallery of the 2008 Seafood Festival, click here.
To see the Photo Gallery of the 2007 Seafood Festival, click here.
To see the Photo Gallery of the 2006 Seafood Festival, click here.
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 created 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, since it conveniently falls on a Saturday, the start of a three-day holiday weekend (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, is always the third Monday in January). 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 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 libations will be sold as well as soda and water.
This is a day of fun, food, music, and entertainment you do not want to miss!
Vicki Gale
Event Coordinator
Bill Kelly
FKCFA
Executive Director
Douglas Gregory
Marine/Sea Grant Agent