Food Festivals in the Gulf

For many boaters, the only thing better than a food festival in the gulf is a food and music festival near a marina. Check off all three categories at mid-January events in Galveston, Texas, and Sarasota, FL.

Galveston

Galveston hosts Yaga’s Chili Quest & Beer Fest January 18-19 at Saengerfest Park in the historic Strand District. It features live music, of course, as well as chili and craft beer tasting, a margarita contest, and a 5K “Fun Run & Walk.” Galveston Yacht Basin is conveniently located within a short walk from the venue.

Sarasota

Downtown Sarasota’s Seafood & Music Festival January 18-20 is a couple of blocks from Marina Jack. Gulf-fresh seafood options include grouper, oysters, stone crabs, shrimp, and softshell crabs. Music venues include jazz, Caribbean, soul, rock, and R&B.

If you want to take a break, you have permission to slip away for a day or so and tour The Ringling, the state art museum of Florida. It has three centers of attention. One is John and Mable Ringling’s 50-room Mediterranean-revivalist palace on Sarasota Bay. Another is a circus museum, a historical testimonial to “The Greatest Show on Earth.” The third is an amazing 21-gallery art museum with sculptures and artwork by Rubens, van Dyke, Velazquez, and other European Old Masters.

By Bill Aucoin, Southern Boating January 2019

If you’re looking for galley inspiration, then cruise down to the Leeward Islands for the Nevis Mango and Food Festival. Held July 5-8 in Charleston, Nevis’s capital, the event features a lip-smacking extravaganza of islandwide dine-arounds, cooking classes, and beach barbecues.

Celebrity chefs attending the Nevis Mango and Food Festival include Seamus Mullens, a New York City restaurateur and finalist on the Food Network’s The Next Iron Chef, who will lead a two-hour cooking class on the bayfront July 5th.

Another is Judy Joo, a UK Iron Chef, host of the Cooking Channel’s Korean Cooking Made Simple and frequent guest judge on Food Network shows such as Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay. Joo joins chefs at the Four Seasons Resort on July 7th to deliver a menu of mango-based dishes and drinks on the resort’s newly expanded pier.

The Four Seasons as well as Montpelier Plantation & Beach, Hermitage Inn, Golden Rock Inn, Nisbet Plantation Beach Club, Mount Nevis Resort, and Oualie Beach Resort offer special packages for the festival if you’d like to spend a couple of nights ashore.

There are no marinas in Nevis, but the Nevis Port Authority has mooring buoys, and there are two anchorages north of Charleston off Pinney’s Beach and the northwest corner off Oualie Beach. Nearby St. Kitt’s is home to the Marina at Christophe Harbour. A 15-minute car ferry ride connects the two islands.

nevismangofest.com

By Carol Bareuther, Southern Boating July 2018
Photo courtesy of Nevis Tourism Society

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