North-East Tasmania’s scenic village by the sea will soon play host to a delicious seafood extravaganza in coming months.
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Celebrate the arrival of the new season of scallops at Bridport, where the Tassie Scallop Fiesta will take place on August 5.
Organiser Tony Scott said the success of other winter festivals and activities taking place around the state sparked the idea to bring Bridport to life during the colder months.
“We thought, how about we try and inject a bit of activity into the village when it’s not quite as active in the wintertime,” he said.
“We were sort of casting around us as to what else was happening at that time of year. We decided that scallops was the go.”
Mr Scott said part of the reason for the decision was due to Bridport’s role in the history of Tasmanian scallop fishing.
“It does so less now because the boats that go scalloping are a bit too big to come into Bridport,” he said.
“But, the biggest processor of scallops is Alan Barnett on the waterfront in Bridport.
“So we certainly thought it was worth celebrating.
“Bridport has a long history of seafaring and fishing, and it’s the original birthplace of salmon aquaculture industry in Tasmania.”
Mr Scott said the festival was not just about eating scallops.
“We’re going to have cooking demonstrations and entertainment,” he said.
“We’ll have a scallop splitting race … for the professionals.
“One of the other main processing places in the state is Stanley. A company called Stanley Fish is challenging the spliters of Alan Barnett Fishery, so there could be a bit of a challenge match.”
With so much interest garnered through social media, Mr Scott said he hoped enough people turned up to make the event worthwhile.
“We’re hosting it as an inaugural event,” he said.
Mr Scott said food vendors for the event would he finalised soon, with “really strong interest from the local businesses” at Bridport.
To keep up-to-date with information about the fiesta, head online to the Facebook page.