Whitianga Scallop Festival Turns 10

With the annual Whitianga Scallop Festival a little under 10 weeks away, town is gearing up for the best festival ever. It is expected over 100,000 scallops will be shucked and cooked in a myriad of ways. The 50 plus available cuisine stands have all been booked by a mix of local chefs, restaurants and community groups serving up scallops in a purpose built village of marquees on the 6th September 2014 on The Esplanade, Whitianga.

Cathedral Cove Macadamias will be back, hoping to take the Best Stand Award for the ten year anniversary clinching a 10 in a row winning sweep.

Celebrity chefs attending this year, Ray McVinnie not only of Masterchef fame but who has been a great festival supporter over the years and we welcome to the cooking stage Josh Emett, judge from Masterchef NZ and Julie Buiso, Food Writer for Taste Magazine.

All of our chefs will be cooking 2 scrumptious scallop recipes on stage and the crowd will have a chance to taste their creations, and pick up a copy of the recipes to take home and try.

Once again Tracey- Lee Hooton (of Masterchef fame) will be exchanging her cooking utensils for the MC microphone for the day.

New to the festival entertainment line-up this year are Kara Gordon as well as Watson and Nicky who will be bringing their unique blend of music to the stage. Past crowd favourites Vegas Brown and The Great Brain Robbers will also be back performing on our Waterways Music Stage.

If you fancy a round of golf, to make room for a few more scallops on the Saturday, register for the Mercury Bay Golf Club – Scallop Festival open. Make a long weekend of it and come and enjoy what the picturesque Mercury Bay and The Coromandel has to offer.

Tickets are on sale at www.scallopfestival.co.nz and Eventfinder. Event organiser, Fiona Kettlewell said, “Don’t delay in getting your tickets as they are selling fast. Only a limited number of tickets are available and once they are sold, there will be no gate sales on the day of the festival.”

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