New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Downtown New Bedford, Inc. and BayCoast Bank announce that this year’s 10TH Annual New Bedford Seaport Chowder Festival will have bigger tents and bigger cash prizes. It will be held on Sunday, October 18th, from 12noon to 5 pm on Pier 3, Port of New Bedford.
Restaurants are being recruited to fill the 25 available booths. The Chowder Festival has two “friendly competition” components culminating in awards at the end of the event. The People’s Choice awards are decided by the votes of the attendees for “Best Of” in all the food categories and for Best Booth Presentation. We are increasing the size and location of the voting tent to make it easier for all our patrons to cast their ballots.
The Judge’s Choice Awards will be decided by a blind taste. DNB’s Executive Director, Diane Arsenault is extremely excited to announce, for our 10th Anniversary event, we have received a new sponsor, Sea Watch International. Because of their support, we are able to increase the cash prizes for the First place winners in the Judge’s Blind Taste Test competition. The winner this year in the Clam Chowder category will receive a $1000 cash prize and the winner in the Stuffed Quahog category with receive $500. The First place winners in the categories of Seafood Chowder, Kale Soup and Specialty Soups will each receive a cash prize of $250. This sponsorship by Sea Watch International is a perfect fit for the Chowder Festival. Sea Watch processes clam and specialty seafood products for the Food Service and Retail Industry as well as servicing many co-pack customers. They currently operate three state of the art plants in Maryland, Delaware and Massachusetts where they pack canned and frozen products.
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Live music also adds to the atmosphere, this year we have The Baha Brothers who will be performing all afternoon with plenty of room to sit and relax or get up and dance! Outside the main tent will be smaller tents set up for food and drinks. The annual YMCA Lobster Races will be “run” and there will be craft activities and fire truck rides for youngsters.
Restaurant applications to participate are available by calling the DNB office or can be downloaded from our website at www.downtownnb.org.
TICKETS are $15 in advance, $18 day of, $5 for children 6-12, free for 5 and younger and are available at the DNB office, on-line through our web-site www.downtownnb.org and at many locations to be announced by early September. Call 508-990-2777 for information.
