HUNDREDS of food lovers flocked to the much-anticipated Dorset Seafood Festival, which returned this year in a new location showcasing a range of local food, drink, and community talent.
The popular festival, which was cancelled last year due to coronavirus restrictions, was held at the weekend on Weymouth Peninsular for the first time, having taken place on the harbourside in the past.
Visitors, who for the first time needed to have tickets, were able to enjoy the sunshine whilst wondering around the festival experiencing a range of different food, entertainment and educational talks.
This year is the first time the event has been ticketed amid the Covid uncertainty and the need to safely control numbers, and queues of food lovers snaked back along the Peninsula beside the Pavilion to get a taste of the treats on offer.
Traders inside the seafood festival were busy as people eagerly awaited their seafood fix, and the extensive seating which filled the large space meant customers were able to easily find a place to sit down with their fresh food and drink.
Educational talks were held and visitors were able to watch how to prepare crab at the Demonstration Kitchen stage near the entrance. At the Harbour Stage visitors could sit and watch a range of professional chefs and food experts give talks and demonstrations on the different ways of cooking with seafood.
Stephanie Turner helps to run Dorset Shellfish which had a busy stall selling a range of different seafood dishes at the event.
She said: "There's been a real great buzz around the whole festival. It's so nice, obviously with the break last year it's our first event back since Covid all kicked off. It's lovely to be going to a local festival on our home turf with the sun shining and it's been great to see so many local people enjoying it.
"I think everybody benefits from events like this and it actually just highlights what Weymouth and Dorset has to offer.
"There's plenty of space and they put loads of tables and chairs around which we didn't have at the harbour. Obviously, it was lovely being by the harbourside because it meant everyone was around the fishing boats and it sort of highlighted the fishing industry, so that was missed, but there is definitely more space for people in this location which is nice."
David Tamlyn was helping his wife run a stall for her business, Weymouth 51, which was serving a special locally-sourced crab linguine and said they will be opening their new restaurant in Weymouth this week.
Mr Tamlyn said: "Obviously the last year's been difficult and things are just starting to recover. It's going to take a while for things to get back to normal again but it's nice for people to get out on a nice sunny day. Things like this are also good for us and mean we can get our name out there and show what we have to offer."
Festivalgoers, Sally and Mike Pugh, from Basingstoke, said they chose this past weekend to visit Weymouth because of the event. They said they have been staying in a hotel in the town and they have really enjoyed spending the day walking around the festival and were particularly impressed by the demonstrations which were taking place on the stages.
Karen and Ian Hodgson, of Portesham, were also visiting the festival for the day on Saturday. Mrs Hodgson said: "The atmosphere is lovely, there are more people than I was expecting.
"I imagine the harbour would have been more atmospheric but this area is quite spacious which is nice. I do understand that they had to move it because of Covid so they could restrict the numbers and charge for the entry ticket."
One of the festival organisers, Sophie Kermani, said: "We're all really happy with how it's gone, and we've got the sun on our side. I've talked to stallholders who all said they were really pleased with how business went for them too.
"We've worked really hard to get this festival on for this year and it was really touch and go for while and with the postponement of last year, so we're really delighted that it was able to go ahead.
On the new locations and ticket charges for visitors, she said: "We've had to do this this year to control numbers and the area. Around the harbour we're unable to control anybody coming in - and having thousands of people descend on the town just did not seem like a sensible thing to do right now. It's been busy, but it's been busy in a manageable way."
She said plans for next year's festival were not under way yet and there was no indication of whether the location would return back to the harbour in the future or whether it would be a ticketed event again.
This year festival organisers highlighted lobster. To celebrate National Lobster Day, which takes place on September 25, organisers at the Dorset Seafood Festival made the sea creature the centre of attention at this past weekend's extravaganza.
However, not everyone was happy about the seafood festival, with a protester from PETA donning a red bodysuit and some claws to lay on a giant plate on the floor, beside a garnish of 'coriander' and a wedge of 'lemon'. The protest urged the festivalgoers to "try to relate to who's on your plate" and go vegan.
Alongside PETA, environmental activists Extinction Rebellion held a 'Funeral for the Fish' and carried fish casket placards with a sign which read "plenty more fish in the sea?". The activists said that they were protesting the impact overfishing is having on the marine environment.
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