The Islands Of The Bahamas have cooked up a recipe for success with the Great Bahamian Seafood & Wine Festival – a signature event just formulated by the Downtown Nassau Partnership, the Ministry of Tourism & Aviation and other partners. The event was announced Thursday.
The festival, set for May 28 and 29, will involve hundreds of Bahamian dishes, thousands of visitors and at least 17 participating restaurants in Nassau. The festival site is the open waterfront immediately west of the British Colonial Hilton on West Bay Street, downtown Nassau. The Bahamas Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources has also put in place several cooking and marine skill demonstrations, culinary demonstrations, and a ceremonial “Sail Pass” by commercial fishing vessels for the opening ceremony of the event.
Senator the Hon. Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, Minister of Tourism & Aviation, said the festival is poised to become a signature event for Nassau and Paradise Island, partly because it is so closely linked to the natural environment of the country.
“(Since this is) a country that has more water than land – 100,000 square miles of water and only a small fraction of that is land – the whole notion of seafood is something that people come to understand quite readily as what it (the country) is all about,” he said. “That is why I am delighted to see the Downtown Nassau Partnership begin to move in a direction of capturing what people come to expect of The Bahamas and begin to deliver it in a very special way.”
Minister Vanderpool-Wallace pointed out that the event begins a journey toward an impressive physical overhaul of Nassau. The redevelopment of the city has been in the works for many years, but the Minister said the whole spirit of the city will be transformed in addition to the physical space.
“It is really about delivering the types of experiences to people that would cause them to come and remember what it is all about,” he said.
Festival organizers are excited about the flair of the event.
“The Great Bahamian Seafood & Wine Festival will celebrate our passion for food, wine and entertainment and offer chefs, caterers and restaurateurs opportunities to showcase seafood cuisine as a part of the Bahamian cultural experience,” said DNP Managing Director Vaughn Roberts, who is also serving as festival chairman. Timing of the festival was set to coincide with the first American holiday of the summer, Memorial Day, a symbolic kick-off that is traditionally one of the biggest travel weekends for North America. And Roberts thinks that timing was critical.
“From the moment we introduced the idea of a seafood festival, the response was overwhelming. We started with a few restaurants and we have been adding names every day. Not only is this an opportunity to showcase the seafood of The Bahamas – conch, crawfish, grouper, mahi-mahi-, snapper and more – but by creating an event within an event, Restaurant Week leading up to the festival, we are able to showcase our cuisine in a way that boosts business over a wide area, creating a memorable experience that visitors will talk about for years to come.”
While the main festival site on Saturday, May 29, is at the edge of historic Nassau, participating restaurants throughout New Providence and Paradise Island are joining the festivities by offering special dishes and fixed price menus from May 22-30.
“The combination of the Great Bahamian Seafood & Wine Festival and Restaurant Week marries culture and cuisine in a way that we hope will whet the appetite for visitors and local residents to experience the pleasure of dining with a lively, festive spirit for a full week of celebrating what we are all about when it comes to food,” said Tourism Director-General Vernice Walkine. “We hope that the main festival on Saturday on Nassau harbour will bring hundreds, if not thousands, to historic Nassau.”
The festival kicks off Friday evening with a gala event at Jacaranda House from 7 – 11 p.m. Some 500 persons are expected to attend with guests paying $125 for a full night’s food, entertainment, dancing and fireworks, art exhibits and a silent auction. Guests will experience seafood and wine pairings with wine experts, a sushi bar, music and dancing, chef demonstrations, dessert and coffee lounge, fireworks, signature restaurants and caterers, art exhibition and auction. The Royal Bahamas Defence Force Pop Band and the legendary Ronnie Butler are on tap for entertainment.
Saturday’s events include a Blessing of the Fleet ceremony at 11 a.m., farmers’ market, fishermen’s wharf, conch cracking competition, fish scaling and fried fish station, culinary competitions and mixology competitions. The Department of Marine Resources along with the Bahamas National Trust and BREEF will present information on the lionfish control project and The Nature Conservancy will staff another environmental exhibit. A separate Kids Zone will be set up.
Participating restaurants include three in hotels – Aqua in the Hilton, Black Angus at the Wyndham resort and The Bahamian Club at Atlantis. Independent upscale restaurants include Graycliff, Ichiban, August Moon, Poop Deck (East and West), Provence, Traveller's Rest, Sun and…, Café Matisse, Luciano’s of Chicago, Seafront Sushi, Van Bruegel’s, Ichiban, and Ristorante Villagio.
Photos (Derek Smith):
(1) Minister of Tourism & Aviation, Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, speaks on plans for the Great Bahamian Seafood & Wine Festival.
(2) Partners in the Great Bahamian Seafood & Wine Festival.
