DK: If I were more prone to hyperbole, I would encourage Ed to title this post “Angry Protesters Clash With Security, Disrupt First Annual Spot Prawn and Fiddle Festival.”
But that is not the real story of this promising new event. True, three young protesters were escorted out of the park shortly after the festival started, but most people missed whatever their message was. My advice to young activists: make sure your banner is facing the crowd when you’re being whisked away.
Maybe next year we’ll all learn why listening to fiddle music while sucking down prawns and watching youth rugby makes us bad people. For now, however, blissful ignorance! The real story of this year’s event was a large crowd got the chance to enjoy some damn good BBQ spot prawns.
ES: June 12th marked the end of the season for harvesting these sweet, lovely crustaceans, and I’m going to miss them. Technically, one can buy them in the freezer section, but there’s no denying when they’re from the ocean to the tanks to the grill, the taste difference is enormous!
I’ve even had them raw ages ago, when there was an attempt to bring a similar festival at the E&N Roundhouse back in 2013 (article), but I don’t know why that didn’t continue.
I’m glad Finest at Sea is running their own event and there was plenty of stomping and slurping going on by the time it was high noon. Part of the event also had a concert from well-known fiddlers across Canada. This event really got going when all the musicians got on stage to give that big band sound so people can start dancing too!
DK: I hope this fest doesn’t suffer the same fate as the one at the E&N Roundhouse. I quite enjoyed the fresh, buttery prawns and would love to see what an expanded festival would look like. I would kill for someone to do a Viet-Cajun spot prawn boil.
ES: Thankfully, what was offered at this event wasn’t limited to just seafood. I loved the fact that I could also slurp down lots of oysters!
The other food vendors included a few traditional carnival staples, ranging from mini doughnuts to gyros (courtesy of Greek on the Street) to hot dogs. We’ll have a separate look at the latter operation in an upcoming review.
Maybe that’s what the protesters were against–the fact that meat was offered here. But not everyone were hunting or harming anything. Plus, are molluscs even considered alive?
DK: Depends on your definition of alive, I guess? A more important question: why aren’t there more seafood festivals in Victoria? Distillery and the Deep Sea. Someone, please get it done.
Partial Vendor List:
- Cozy Koji
- Kuku’s Take Out (Indian)
- Naked Dressings
- Greek on the street
- Rootside Soda
- Island Jerky
- Wandering Mollusk
- Merridals Craft Cider
- The Shrubbery Company
twohungryblokes.com 