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First seafood fest to celebrate Outer Banks heritage
For years, locals and visitors have asked why the Outer Banks doesn’t host a seafood festival.
After beaches and natural beauty, both natives and out-of-towners alike list seafood as among the primary reasons they love this area.
Thanks to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, the Town of Nags Head, a committee of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers, and an array of sponsors and local restaurants, the first Outer Banks Seafood Festival will become a reality on Saturday Oct. 20.
The Voice sat down with Festival president Neils Moore, Lee Nettles, Managing Director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, and committee member Susie Walters, a Nags Head commissioner to explain why locals and residents of Hampton Roads and eastern North Carolina should plan a visit to this inaugural event.
The outdoor event will take place in Nags Head at the former site of the Windmill Point restaurant.
General admission is free and includes live bands, cooking exhibitions and other free events.
For more details, visit the event website at http://www.outerbanksseafoodfestival.org/.
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Ray Midgett says:
This was a most disappointing interview. No offense intended to the Voice. But, the entire focus of comments was upon promoting the business interests on the Outer Banks, not one single sentence about our “working watermen” or the fishing heritage here on the OBX. Only Walters mentioned it, in passing. Notice that names of restaurants and bands were listed by those interviewed.
I am 100% in favor of the Seafood Festival, but this interview sounded like another $$$$ making event was being pushed into the faces of our visitors. Not one word about local involvement of fishermen and their families was said. Disappointing. But, I’ll be there. Hope it doesn’t rain.
joe says:
Maybe I’m missing something and someone can explain it to me. How is this helping out the local fisherman? It seems like this is just the resturaunts showing off their seafood dishes, which in turn in leading more people to resturaunts that already have wait times in the summer. Isn’t that just helping the rich get richer?
Jason says:
If you want real seafood, go to Wanchese. I hate to sound negative, but his is most definitely a marketing gig, and I’m highly doubtful there will be any local “history” or “heritage” there. Hopefully I am wrong though and the festival will be a wonderful success.
junkman says:
I agree with these guys. First, the video sounds just like an infomercial. Billy Mays would have been proud. Second, there seems to be no emphasis on heritage or culture. Instead of a bunch of restaurants, why not something like a traditional oyster roast, fish fry, shrimp boil or community cook-a-thon featuring fresh fish off the boats. With 37 people on the steering committee alone, there should be plenty of volunteer talent to pull it off.
A more important question….where are the profits going? If we’re serious about this, how about donating the proceeds to help the water-men and women pay for healthcare. This could be a really meaningful event…or another commercial farce.
Homesick for Home says:
I hope this event doesn’t go the “carnival” way of the seafood festival in Morehead City. That event also started as a “seafood” festival and now it is “anything goes” – everything from carnival rides to alligator bites, imported shrimp and lottery tickets! The commercial fishermen (the men and women who bring that fresh local seafood to the dock) need support, not another “event” where they are lost in the numbers and dollars.
Alice Ann says:
In agreement with Jason and Junkman: Until this interview I thought the Seafood Festival was all about commercial fishing and its impact on our area. I would volunteer to help with an old time oyster roast which I think would be a great idea as opposed to an October-Taste-of-the-Beach. Comment: Captain Georges???? Don’t they buy/cook/sell foreign seafood?
Lee Nettles says:
The committee has worked very hard to keep this a local event, with local restaurants, local bands, local artisans, local non-profits, and yes, very much so, highlighting the efforts of our local watermen/women and heritage. Intentionally not the “carnival” sprawl of the some other fests.
Outer Banks Catch is one of four founding entities for this event. The Catch tent is a main attraction for the festival and will have (free) programming throughout the day highlighting our working watermen/women and the benefits of locally harvested seafood.
The best thing that we can do to bring attention to the our working watermen is to bring thousands of people into direct contact with their stories, heritage and the seafood they harvest. That’s what this festival is about.
It was morning so I don’t claim to be dynamic, but I most definitely mentioned that this festival is about our fresh local seafood and working watermen (5:00 mark).
This is going to be a great day for the Outer Banks. We hope you’ll be a part of it, either as a volunteer or an attendee.
Ray Midgett says:
Lee, I am certainly aware of the effort to include working waterman in the event. However, the interview of all involved fell way short of letting the public know that. It sounded like another tourism oriented event, e.g. wine tasting, taste of the beach, jazz festival, comes to mind..
Anne Bowers says:
The Outer Banks DOES have a seafood festival. It’s called Day at the Docks which has been happening for many years. It is a celebration of Hatteras Island watermen, our local seafood but also about the culture and heritage of fishing for a living on this Island.
The event began when Hatteras villagers came together for a Blessing of the Fleet after Hurricane Isabel devastated the lower part of the island in 2003.
This year, it grew into a four-day event – featuring a day-long celebration of the island’s heritage on the docks in the village on Sept. 15 that ended with the traditional parade of working boats into Hatteras Harbor and Blessing of the Fleet. It is a wonderful event that will continue every September for years to come!
You can read about this year’s event and also see a slide show of all of the activities by going to:
http://islandfreepress.org/2012Archives/09.17.2012-DayAtTheDocks2012DrawsLargerCrowdThanEverToHonorIslandWatermen.html
Obx homeowner says:
Ray..it’s time you moved.
Donny King says:
I am going to be a proud presenter at the Outer Banks Seafood Festival and am happy with the way it is being promoted. In order to educate an audience, you need an audience. I feel that if we came together and asked two to five thousand people to attend a class on how important local seafood is and how hard our watermen work, not too many would come. The Seafood Festival was created as an event to draw visitors and locals alike to a fun event which will offer a lot of different things to entice participation and visitation, then to emphasize where our seafood comes from and how it gets here.
As a restauranteur, I understand the importance of supporting the individuals which work with our local resources. I am happy that it is mandated that we prepare local seafood items for the event. I will get my Shrimp from Etheridge Seafood in Wanchese and procure my Oysters from The Captain’s Oysters of Stumpy Point. Many seafood providers will have a chance to show their wares at the event, and we as restaurants will support them. It is important to voice a concern for an event to be “well grounded” and have a greater purpose. It can, however, be counterproductive, to discredit a presentation of an event before the project has even gotten off the ground, hampering their efforts to promote.
I’m happy to support this event, work hard, and encourage others to donate their time to make this a good effort. We will work hard, do what we do best, and reflect on the event afterwards to see what sort of benefits it could provide.
As for Day at the Docks – way to go! I’m proud that the event has grown to what is is today.
Obx home owner says:
Donny king has my vote!…
smh says:
Sorry but very few restaurants here use local seafood. Even to be part of OBX catch program the first level is 1 yes only 1 item needed on the menu that is local and that is sad. I buy from seafood markets here not our food chain stores. Local history of our fisheries is so grand and the stories are not shared they way they should.Just wondering, are committee members that are working so hard to make this a ‘local’ event
Even local? Are they a member of our local fishing families ?
Anna says:
Where is the money going that this event makes?
They are asking for volunteers for the event while people are making money off it. I do volunteer often here on the Outer Banks, but for non-profits or events where atleast some of the money is going to help our local people and not resturants that in the summer don’t care for us, some don’t care anytime of year for locals and only want the tourist money
Kitty Hawker says:
Ok…I am on one of these committees…so let me share. Visit the OB Catch Educational Tent and listen to Danny Couch as he talks with Michael Oden Peele (Hatteras Island), Capt Marty Brill (Hyde County), Tommy Peters (Nags Head),Capt Eph O’ Neal (Hatteras Island),L.B. Fulcher (Hatteras Island)and Murray Bridges (Colington) about their life working the waters. Come and watch Bud from Basnight’s Lone Cedar, Sharon Peele Kenndey (Hatteras Island) and others to learn how to cook seafood. Yes my friends, it is about our hertiage and yes I am a 6th generation of Dare County and very proud of it. I very proud to have worked with so many dedicated volunteers and hats off to Dorothy Killingsworth and Carl Curnette.
Donny King says:
Well, we got our audience! Looks like next year, our local seafood supplies can look forward to twice as big an order from me for this event! From the pictures, the information tents were a HUGE attraction as well! Great job, all!
Don Jones says:
Yes unfortnely resturants are in the buisness of making money, and yes most “rich” are getting “richer”. I was proud to see one of the outer banks newest resturants “I GOT YOUR CRABS” in kitty hawk, have a succesful day! i happen to have read there story on the back of the menu while waiting in there lonnnggg line. The onwer of this resturant actually is a commercial fisherman and has been since he was 5 years old. A tradition handed down from his family. which his resturant also is “Family Operated” he supplys his everyday fresh catch of local crabs and fish in his resturant himself. I asked the girl up front serving food about this “onwer” in the story and she pointed to him behind her, he was steaming a bushel of crabs, i walked around the back of his tent and interduced myself and told him i enjoyed his “story” and was about to enjoy his food! he said thanks and chatted a bit with me, he told me the only reason he opened this resturant was to put food on the table for his family, as commercial fishing gets harder and harder to make a living at. He said “rich” was not in his future , but survival was all he knew!” i was proud to meet that young man. so yes the OBX seafood festival deffintly shared some local heritige with me. and i took a good peice of “Local” home with me.