By Lindy Nauta
The Oceana Hout Bay Seafood Festival kicks off on Heritage Day, September 24 and runs until Sunday September 28. Hout Bay will be woken up from its winter slumber with a loud bang. A few bangs in fact, when the tri-athletes take off early in the morning in a Le Mans style start-dash with a cold plunge into the 13 degrees water at 7.45am as part of their three-tier swimming, run and cycling challenge.
The official part of the programme gets underway at 10.30am when the VIP's gather on a podium in the new parking area off Baviaanskloof Road opposite the post office to witness the start of the Hout Bay Heritage parade at 11.15am.
This will be followed by the re-enactment of the 1795 'Battle of Hout Bay' in the bay at about 12pm and the Heritage Day picnic and concert at Kronendal Primary School at 1pm.
The aim of the Festival is to place Hout Bay on the map as the Seafood Capital of South Africa, and promote tourism in a generally slow period.
Hout Bay will be rocking with a blitz of events during the five days, including the seafood-themed Restaurant Week and a series of cookery demonstrations by Hout Bay's leading chefs and restaurateurs. A starring line-up of the Bay's most popular food personalities, paired in teams of two, will keep audiences glued to their seats as the chefs are interviewed live by a team of food journalists.
The organising committee has challenged local chefs to create brilliant original recipes using sustainable, SASSI green-listed seafood.
There will also be several sports events, cultural, arts and music events as well as the SASSI & Two Oceans Aquarium "Educational Experience". Concerts, 'Hout Bay's Got Talent', dance and drama productions as well as the Lucky Star 5-Aside football, 6-Aside cricket, a Nav Challenge in and around the bay as well as Indigenous Games are all part of the programme.
For the full list of events on heritage, seafood, arts, music, sports and youth events visit http://www.oceanahoutbayseafoodfestival.com/ and click on programme. You can also like their facebook page, Oceana Hout Bay Seafood Festival.