The Florida Keys Seafood Festival celebrates the community by bringing families and friends together in a joyful and fun environment to sample the local catch. This family friendly event was conceived to showcase local seafood and the Florida Keys‘ commercial fishing industry by providing the freshest seafood available. Each year, the fishermen and women are proud to offer the community a variety of seafood at reasonable prices.

It is the hope of the community that this festival will become an annual event that visitors can plan their vacations around. The festival also hopes to raise money for the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association. Some of the proceeds from the festival Florida Keys Seafood Festival sponsor scholarships going to children of local fishermen from Key Largo to Key West.

The lack of a seafood festival in the Key West area has been obvious for many years. It took the devastating hurricane season of 2005 that wiped out 75% of the fishing gear to provide the needed motivation for finally making this now successful event possible. It took the combined efforts of the FKCFA and UF/IFAS/Monroe County Extension Services to make the first festival in 2006 possible.

The fishermen and their families work hard at preparing the delicious seafood dishes. Not only will they offer the best prices in town, they will also have the freshest shrimp, lobster, and two kinds of crab. While most people are familiar with stone crab, we will also have a unique treat with a special booth serving deep water golden crab. In addition, visitors to the festival can enjoy conch salad, conch fritters, and conch chowder prepared with local recipes. Let’s not forget the sweets that will be available like Flan and Key Lime Pie. And of course beer and wine will be available as well as sodas and water.

There will be approximately 50 vendors, some selling their wares, some handing out free educational information about their agencies. This is a day of fun, food, and music you do not want to miss!