A Salty Dockside Festival

    The Montauk Seafood Festival is set to happen on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. under a tent in the parking lot of the Montauk Marine Basin, near Lynn’s Hula Hut.

    There will be nonstop music by the 3Bs, Timmy Fee, and Remember September. Fish races, a snapper derby, fish-print demonstrations, T-shirt airbrushing, and coloring contests will keep the kids busy.

    More than a dozen local restaurants will offer (mostly seafood) tastings from their menus, with dishes including ahi tuna sliders, sushi, lobster rolls, clam chowder, fish tacos, seafood wontons, steamed seafood bags, seafood crepes, oysters and clams, and sea scallops with cheese grits.    Montauk fishing legends such as Carl Darenberg, Ricky Etzel, Kenny Bouse, Stuart Vorpahl, and Barley Dunne from the fish hatchery will give hourly talks about the good old days when the hamlet was all about the fishing.

    The hosts are the Montauk Friends of Erin and the East Hampton Kiwanis Club, and proceeds will benefit Toys for Tots, pediatric trauma care, the Montauk Friends of Erin St. Patrick’s Day parade, and local scholarships. The food vendors have paid $500 per space and will donate $1 from the sale of each food item back to the festival.

    The seafood festival is also being held in an attempt to extend the season and attract people to the harbor area. Since Montauk has become such a hot spot lately, most visitors tend to congregate in the downtown clubs and at ocean beaches, leaving the docks quiet, especially in the afternoons when people used to gather to see what the boats brought in.

    The event’s sponsors are The Montauk Sun, Despatch Self Storage, and My Earth Water, which has donated 50 cases of water that will be sold throughout the two-day event. In addition to tropical and specialty drinks from the Hula Hut, there will be beer from the Montauk Brewing Company and wines from Pindar and Duck Walk Vineyards. Admission is free.