New seafood festival a hit: Sophie Preece reports from the Port Chalmers Seafood Festival

摘要

The overwhelming success of the inaugural Port Chalmers Seafood Festival this month may overturn plans for a biennial event."There might be a bit of pressure now to have it every year," says organising committee chair Pete Cole. "One Dunedin City Councillor said he wants it every six months."Punters streamed into a huge Port Otago shed on October 1 to devour oysters, crayfish, whitebait patties, blue cod and other seafood delights, before heading onto a sunlit wharf for music, fishing, marine education and fish filleting workshops.Two hundred young fishers crowded the wharf edge to dangle lines in the water, while others braved crabs to pluck chocolate coins from beneath them.Pete says organisers had hoped for 4000 visitors, but capped their expectations at 6000. They had been stunned to receive around 6500, with many visitors arriving on the free trains running from central Dunedin, or the free boats ferrying from the nearby village of Portobello.