The Whitianga Oceans Festival, formerly the Whitianga Scallop Festival, delivers a fabulous day centred around seafood, music, beverages and entertainment. The festival is a celebration of the regions seafood and marine heritage, held annually in September – this year Saturday 18 September. We’re now in our sixteenth year and the festival has grown into one of New Zealand’s iconic seafood/kaimoana, celebrations. Given there will be no scallops served as they are left to rest, this year the festival savours a variety of seafood cooked in a myriad of different ways by renowned chefs, food trucks and local community groups. As a festival goer, you get a chance to taste and indulge in an array of seafood in ways you may not have imagined. The seafood is complemented with an array of local and New Zealand beverages, and you’ll be entertained by live bands, buskers, seafood cooking classes and more. Be captivated at our Master Chef cooking stage, learning the secrets of world class recipes. You’ll love the array of live music on offer with our two stages full of musicians playing from start to finish. This year the traditional festival site is being used for marina development work. Given this we’ll hold this iconic festival at Lyon Park, fronting onto the Whitianga Harbour. This site gives us better opportunities to celebrate our local seafood with the entertainment we are renowned for. Brought to you by Whitianga Scallop Festival Inc., this event is an opportunity for community groups such as Mercury Bay Area School, Scouts and the Lions Club to raise generous funds for their organisations. Make a long weekend of it in Whitianga.
