Seafest is returning to Squirrel Cove on Saturday, May 20, 2023. 

“SeaFest is coming out of hiatus. It ran for over 20 years and then we shut it down during COVID. We were going to start it up last year at the Gorge, but then the Gorge was going through a lot of changes. This Sea Festival is coming back to Squirrel Cove. The view is spectacular. I think it’s got the best view on the island and it’s got a rustic feel about it too. The old store has been there for a hundred years. The interpretive centre is there. This Seafest probably won’t be as big as it was the last few years at the Gorge. It will be more like a community get-together. We’re going back to good food, good entertainment, and a lot of locals coming,” said Julia Rendall, Secretary of the Cortes Island Seafood Association.

“We have a lot of ideas we’ve been throwing around. We’re hoping that Klahoose will be involved. We’ll want to have a lot more children’s activities. We want to showcase a lot of musicians, especially the younger musicians. There’s so much talent on this island. The takeout will be operating, if somebody wanted a quick oyster burger.”

The festival’s backbone is its volunteers. 

“We would just love to have people from all walks of life volunteer.” 

They are also looking for local organizations who want to set up booths.

 “Also individuals if they have something they’d really like to showcase: arts, crafts, pottery. One lady wants to have desserts, which finishes off the meal. If anybody wants to have a booth at this Sea Festival, we will be very happy to have you take part.” 

The association’s annual celebration was held in Squirrel Cove for six years before moving to the Gorge in 2014. 

Those were some of Rendall’s favourite Seafests, “By then we knew what we were doing and could do these other play things. We had a lot of kids games. We made cutouts of oysters with legs and had the kids paint them. They had a little point so you could stick them in the ground. So by the end of the day, we had all these little oysters stuck in the ground on the grass, which was very cute and the kids loved it. We had a touch tank. I think they even had a trebuchet shooting onto the beach. We had ‘the largest oyster’ competition, which was quite successful. Phil Allen was telling me the other day that he had a huge, beautiful oyster.  He thought it was the largest oyster, and then somebody came with this long, skinny, oyster, and it won.” 

The Festival changed after it moved to Gorge Harbour. 

“The Gorge was a perfect setup. It was very good food and very organized. It was love, but it was different. I think Squirrel Cove was the most spontaneous, but that’s my personal opinion.” 

Curt Cunningham, owner/manager of the Squirrel Cove General Store added, “The store is hosting Seafest. We’re very privileged and happy that they are bringing it back to Squirrel Cove. I think we’re going to have an excellent day. We will do everything we can to make it successful. The funds go to the oyster growers and it’s a really good cause.”  

There has been some talk about Seafest being a soft launch for what could amount to a revitalization of Squirrel Cove

Cunnigham clarified, “The soft opening is for our takeout. So when we open the takeout, we will have a limited menu and be working into it so that we don’t get overwhelmed.” 

“There’s a lot of things that are being talked about and in the works, and quite a few of them  may happen, may not happen. We need to let it evolve and see what happens. My plan is to make Squirrel Cove successful as a gathering place and to bring as much business as we can. I’m grateful for all the support I have. Squirrel Cove is supported greatly by a lot of people on the island. I appreciate it.”

Julia Rendall traced the origins of Seafest back to Smelt Bay

“There was a bit of a push against shellfish farming back in the early 2000s.  A group called ‘The Friends of the Gorge’ really didn’t want oyster farmers there. Marcel Creurer decided we should have something to show that we have a good product to present to the public.”

“Seafest brought the community together. The ‘farmers vs upland owners’ conflict dissipated quite a bit. They realized that we’re on an island. Some of us work, some of us are retired and we all can get together and have a good time.” 

“When we started at Smelt Bay, it was all pretty much local oyster farmers running it. There were  maybe 20 cooks and maybe another 10 volunteers putting up the tents and taking them down. They were all volunteers;  Nobody was paid.”

CC: What were the highlights.

“ At that time  Victor McLaggan was trying to get organic status for oyster growers, which proved to be impossible, but we had a big booth and  lots of promotion going on.”

 “The very first year we had a live auction. We had five oyster farmers and as Marcel put it, they were going to strut their stuff and we auctioned them off to help people in their yards. They all flexed their muscles and we auctioned them. It wasn’t that successful after the fact because  people wanted them to come a certain day and the oyster farmers would say, ’Oh no, can’t do that.’ They’d be off somewhere else doing another job! I think some of them never actually did what they were supposed to do.”

“Seafest was a pretty affordable, and it was an all you could eat. We had chowders. Suzanne Minogue cooked cod ceviche, I think, and we had mussels in cream and wine sauce. It was very gourmet food.” 

“It was a more complicated menu and laterally they had to simplify it because there were just so many people. We’d have over 350 people and that was a lot to feed.”

“It got bigger and bigger after that.”

SeaFest moved to Squirrel Cove around 2008 and is returning on Saturday, May 20th from 11am-5pm.

The Cortes Island Seafood Association will be releasing more information as we get closer to the festival date.

Top image credit: Aerial view of Squirrel Cove showing the General Store and Interpretive Centre . SeaFest will use some of the ground on the right. – Photo by Curt Cunningham

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