The September 25-26 weekend saw nearly 25,000 people descend on the Barbican and Sutton Harbour for the Plymouth Seafood and Harbour Festival.
As well as providing a much-needed boost for local businesses, the family-friendly festival had stalls, live entertainment, cookery demonstrations and children’s activities to enjoy.
Diane Mansell, Chief Executive of Plymouth Waterfront Partnership (PWP) – which runs the event – said: “We’re absolutely delighted with the success of this year’s Seafood and Harbour Festival which brought thousands of visitors to the waterfront and showed off the very best of Britain’s Ocean City.”
The festival had a new layout this year, with the Cookery Theatre and bar relocated to West Pier next to the Mayflower Steps, which gave visitors more space to browse.
Stalls and street food traders lined The Parade and Quay Road, selling fresh produce, homewares and a variety of delicious food and drink options.
In the demo marquee, Seafish hosted a display of local fish species (provided by Plymouth Trawler Agents) to demonstrate the variety on offer.
The fish on display was auctioned off at the end of each day for charity, and the amount raised was match-funded by PWP.
This resulted in a total of £2,240 for The Fishermen’s Mission, which provides practical, financial and emotional care for fishermen and their families.
Diane Mansell continued: “It was a really fantastic weekend, thank you to everyone who came and joined us.
“Anecdotally, we’ve heard from some businesses that it was one of their best ever trading weekends so we know it fulfilled our goal of encouraging more people to explore the Waterfront area and to shop local.”
The festival was made possible with the support of Sutton Harbour Group, Sound Seafood, Ventons Devon Cyder and Plymouth City Council, and funding for the entertainment was provided by the Reopening the High Street Safely Fund, part funded by the ERDF and HM Government.
Plymouth City Council Leader Nick Kelly added: “We work closely with PWP to promote the waterfront. Plymouth Seafood and Harbour Festival is an incredible celebration of everything the area has to offer – particularly fresh, sustainably caught fish.
“It was brilliant to see that so many people are keen to support our vital fishing industries, as well as our local independent shops, pubs and eateries by choosing to spend local.”
