03-08-2011, 01:02 PM
The Dorset Seafood Festival 2011 (9th & 10th July) is set to become the largest seafood festival in the UK and will be heavily promoting sustainable fishing throughout this year's event. A highlight of Dorset's social calendar and attracting 50,000 visitors in 2010 the event is set in Weymouth's historical old working harbour and is a celebration of the sea and all its bounty.
Once again the festival will feature celebrity chef demonstrations; this year from Lesley Waters, Mat Follas, Ed Baines, Shaun Rankin, John Wright, GilesThompson and others. They will join over 100 stalls, many selling a range of seafood dishes. It is the perfect platform from which to reinforce the importance of using less well known species and to furnish visitors with delicious recipe ideas in an entertaining and educational way.
Passionate About Fish, a company devoted to educating children about fish and a regular participant at the event, will be running a fish identification session where visitors learn about lesser known fish species. Celebrity and local chef cooking demonstrations, taking place across two stages, will also involve fish caught from sustainable fisheries.
Sustainability has always been an important element of The Dorset Seafood Festival, now in its fourth year. The emphasis is greater this year to demonstrate support for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Fish Fight to end the practise of discards and to provide more detailed information to the public in a relevant forum.
'We wholeheartedly support the fantastic work that HFW is doing by encouraging a diversification of our fish eating habits and trying to change policy so that it works for fish, fishermen and consumers. The festival's sponsors all support sustainable fishing and agree that The Dorset Seafood Festival provides the perfect back drop for such an important message,' said Brian Cooper, spokesperson for The Festival.
Once again the festival will feature celebrity chef demonstrations; this year from Lesley Waters, Mat Follas, Ed Baines, Shaun Rankin, John Wright, GilesThompson and others. They will join over 100 stalls, many selling a range of seafood dishes. It is the perfect platform from which to reinforce the importance of using less well known species and to furnish visitors with delicious recipe ideas in an entertaining and educational way.
Passionate About Fish, a company devoted to educating children about fish and a regular participant at the event, will be running a fish identification session where visitors learn about lesser known fish species. Celebrity and local chef cooking demonstrations, taking place across two stages, will also involve fish caught from sustainable fisheries.
Sustainability has always been an important element of The Dorset Seafood Festival, now in its fourth year. The emphasis is greater this year to demonstrate support for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Fish Fight to end the practise of discards and to provide more detailed information to the public in a relevant forum.
'We wholeheartedly support the fantastic work that HFW is doing by encouraging a diversification of our fish eating habits and trying to change policy so that it works for fish, fishermen and consumers. The festival's sponsors all support sustainable fishing and agree that The Dorset Seafood Festival provides the perfect back drop for such an important message,' said Brian Cooper, spokesperson for The Festival.