Maryland Seafood Festival Moves To Downtown Annapolis

After 30 years at Sandy Point State Park, the Maryland Seafood Festival is moving to Annapolis City Dock.

“We’re super excited to bring the festival to Annapolis where it all started over 50 years ago as the Annapolis Clam Festival,” said Daryl Cooke, vice president of ABC Events, which organizes and promotes the event.

The festival will be held August 19-20 from 11:00am to 7:00pm.

The event will have its seafood attractions such as the crab soup cook-off, beer and oyster tent, and live music throughout the day.

“We are so excited that the Maryland Seafood Festival is at City Dock,” said Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley. “It is the perfect place to showcase the bounty of the Chesapeake Bay. For generations, the City Dock was where fresh seafood was brought to market. We want those people to make those connections to the water and that history.”

The seafood festival promotes the event as a safe and entertaining one for the entire family.

“It will be educational and fun for kids as we’ll have a Chesapeake Bay workboat on display, build a reef ball activity, demonstrations on crab picking and oyster harvesting, bounce houses and pogo-stick demonstrations,” Cooke said.

As always, the variety of seafood will be one of the main attractions as the soup cook-off is on Saturday from 11:30am to 2:30pm and will have local restaurants and caterers competing for the titles of Best Maryland Crab, Best Cream of Crab, and Best Alternative Soup. The contest will have first-, second- and third-place champions from the judges’ choice and people’s choice categories.

Last year, La Prima Catering won first prize from the judges and for the people’s choice category for its Maryland crab soup. DoubleTree Hotel won for its cream of crab soup in both categories, La Prima won the people’s choice for Best Alternative Soup, and Jimmy’s Seafood won the judges’ choice for Best Alternative Soup.

There will also be steamed crabs from Jimmy’s Seafood at the event, but participants must order them in advance at www.mdseafoodfestival.com.

“We will also have the Naptown seafood sampler, which features eight types of seafood as well as a drink for $25,” Cooke said.

The Annapolis restaurants and businesses are also thrilled about the festival coming to City Dock as the event always draws a large crowd of local and regional visitors.

“We have a great partnership with the city, and we hope that after the festival is over on those days, the visitors will stay in the city and have dinner and shop at the local businesses,” Cooke said.

The festival will offer shuttles to and from the U.S. Naval Academy Stadium on the days of the event. Tickets to the festival are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to www.mdseafoodfestival.com.

“For six decades, the Maryland Seafood Festival has brought together residents, families and visitors to experience our Chesapeake culture,” said Kristen Pironis, executive director of Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. “Events and festivals are a major draw to Annapolis, and we always look forward to welcoming them to the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, and this year to City Dock.”