Oistins Fish Festival officially underway

The 2024 Oistins Fish Festival is officially underway. Just after 4 p.m. on Saturday, the festival kicked off with a colourful street parade that featured Cub Scouts, cheerleaders from several secondary schools, and musicians making their way through the southern town.

After the parade, a brief opening ceremony was held, where Dr Shelly-Ann Cox, Chief Fisheries Officer, welcomed patrons and vendors, stating, “Oistins is the epitome of fishing culture”. She said the festival fully encapsulates the culture unique to Oistins and the people who support its economy.

“When you think about Oistins and you think about walking across the jetty, you think about these third and fourth generations braving the world from the shore. You think about vendors plying their trade, you think about ladies boning and cleaning fish, you also think about those men using knives and those artistic tools, you also think about the people who are working hard to make sure that the market is in a good condition to be able to serve the fisherfolk. That is all of these things when you think about the culture,” she said.

Cox said festivals such as the fish festival serve as an important example for stakeholders within the industry as to why support and cooperation is important in the blue economy.

“It helps persons like me who are tasked with the management of the fisheries resources, to see how special something like this is, to see why we need to preserve it, and why we need to make sure that resources are available for present and future generations.”

This year’s festival has more than 150 vendors taking part, with organisations expecting hundreds of patrons to make their way down to the fishing town over the next three days.