The North Carolina Seafood Festival is a week away and local fishermen are already catching fresh fish for the big weekend.
The festival, presented by the NC Department of Agriculture, is celebrating its 29th year. This year it’s expected more than 200,000 people will attend the festival in Morehead City from October 2-4.
The festival’s mission is to help strengthen the local economy, community, and fishing industry by supporting local seafood.
It’s a mission Morehead City local Mindy Fitzpatrick is passionate about. Fitzpatrick has worked with the festival for the past four years, but this year, she’s the festival chair. She said this year the Chef’s tent will be opening a day early.
“The chef’s tent this year will have an education day on Friday. It’s typically been a dark tent on Friday and has not been open until Saturday when the chefs come in. This year we’re doing education with the marine sciences from the different universities here. We’re really going back to our mission of educating people on local seafood and why it’s important to buy fish and help the industry,” Fitzpatrick said.
The festival was voted a Top 20 Free Festival in the U.S. by National Geographic Travel. The festival was also recently named the Top 20 Festival of the Year among 12 states by the Southeast Tourism Society.
There is no charge to enter the festival.
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