Daily Sitka Sentinel

Seafood Festival: Games & Gourmet Food

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Bobbing for apples is too tame for the Last Frontier, so the annual Sitka Seafood Festival takes that old game one step further: at this event you bob for fish heads.
    Is that as unpleasant as it looks?
    Actually no, says John Stein, who bobbed for fish heads at last year’s festival and in the effort found himself close to being bodily dunked in the tank. He gained success finally by “corralling a head in the corner” and grabbing it in his teeth, to the cheers of the crowd.
    “From a distance it looks disgusting and tortuous,” said Stein, who was fish head bobbing for his first time. “But the fish is fresh, the water’s fresh. It’s no big deal.”
    The event is a big draw at the annual festival, which celebrates wild Alaskan seafood.

The Sitka Seafood Festival parade float demonstrated maritime spirit last year. This year's parade will take place on Aug. 2 and follow a route from Crescent Harbor down Lincoln Street toward the SJ Campus. Floats and children's costumes will be judged for cash prizes. (Photo by Reber Stein)

    Activities will start Thursday, July 30. A highlight of the festival will be Friday night’s Seafood Extravaganza, a five-course dinner of seafood at Centennial Hall, with dishes prepared by professional chefs brought in from out-of-town. On Saturday the events move to Crescent Harbor and the SJ Campus.
    During the four days of the festival there will also be seafood cooking demonstrations by the chefs, contests such as the fish head bob, tote races, Highland Games, a recipe contest, a golf tournament, an art exhibit and a Yupik tribal funk concert and dance with music by the Alaska group Pumyua.
    The festival was founded in 2010 by a group of Sitkans interested in bringing people together around the theme of wild seafood. It’s grown every year since then, said Alicia Haseltine, a board member and one of the founders.
    “It was trying to gather all of the local folks together to celebrate one of our largest industries here,” she said. “The goal was to start educating people outside Alaska about our awesome resource here, and its wonderful aspects.”
    Haseltine said she and the others wanted to bring in chefs from all over the U.S. and promote Alaska seafood.

    She said she’s particularly pleased that there will be demonstrations by local and visiting chefs this year.
    The lineup of this year’s guest chefs:
    Caleb France, who started the Cerulean Restaurant in Indianapolis and Winona Lake, Ind., and features Sitka seafood in his restaurant.
    Rob Kinneen, an Anchorage chef who specializes in using Alaskan foods.
    Seth Caswell, the executive chef at Google’s headquarters in Kirkland, Wash.
    Mickey Neely, named best up-and-coming chef in 2012 by the Chicago Reader.
    Jeren Schmidt, owner of Sitka Spruce Catering.
    France created the menu for the seafood extravaganza, which will include fish and seafood in every course except dessert.
    Haseltine said she believes the festival board has hit on a formula that seems to work, with a combination of food and entertainment, with a few tweaks in the schedule every year.
    One event added in recent years is the cocktail hour, which gives members of the public a chance to rub elbows with the chefs before the dinner. The cocktail hour prior to the Aug. 1 dinner will start at 5:30 p.m. with appetizers and a signature cocktail.
    “It’s a meet and greet with the chefs, and the chefs come around and you can chat with them,” Haseltine said. “People who are interested in getting to know a little bit more. I had a lot of people saying it’s an amazing deal.”
    A number of people are coming to the festival from out of town, particularly Juneau and Anchorage.
    “It’s going in the right direction; it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight,” Haseltine said of the goal to bring in tourists. “Our tourism industry is definitely shifting. We have this niche we can draw attention to. If we focus on other aspects of our community, we could pull in more tourism outside the cruise ship industry. We have all this amazing seafood, and we have this beautiful, beautiful place.”
    On Saturday, Aug. 2, a marketplace, with food and vendor booths, will be open on the SJ campus.
    A popular event added in recent years is the Highland Games, traditional Scottish games of strength, which is drawing participants from other parts of Alaska.
    Jim Gibson, a Sitka-based Coast Guard member who founded the games, said there were about 18 competitors last year. He will be moving soon to Astoria, Ore., but hopes the Highland Games tradition continues in Sitka.
    “Hopefully it stays on when I’m gone,” he said. His best event is the weight throw (light weight – 28 pounds), and the caber.
     Haseltine’s husband, Eric, has participated in the event, and will take over the games next year. Gibson said he hopes to return to help out or at least participate.
    “It’ll give me an excuse to come back to Sitka,” Gibson said.
    The schedule of the Seafood Festival:
Thursday
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sheldon Jackson Museum Art Exhibit: fish skin bags recently made by students with the artist in residence, Audrey Armstrong. Exhibit lasts through Aug. 3
4:30 p.m. – Bottle Signing, House of Liquor, with Rodney Strong wines.
6 p.m. – Garden Tour, Crescent Harbor. Signup required at 747-9440 or jdshaw2@alaska.edu
7 p.m. – Film: “Red Gold,” Larkspur Cafe

Friday
5:30 p.m. – VIP Cocktail Hour. Tickets $35 online. Centennial Hall exhibit room.
7 p.m. – Seafood Extravaganza. Tickets online $65 prior to July 28, $70 after. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Centennial Hall.

Saturday
11 a.m. – Tote Race, Crescent Harbor. Sign up prior, 747-6985
After Tote Race – Seafood Festival Parade from Crescent Harbor Shelter down Lincoln Street to SJ Campus. Signup 747-6985.
Noon – Marketplace with food, vendors, cooking demos, speakers, entertainment on the SJ campus.
Noon to 6 p.m. – Highland Games. SJ quad. Contact 757-535-3962 to enter.
12:20 p.m. – Cooking Demo #1, Main tent, SJ campus.
12:40 p.m. – Crab Races: Kids ages up to 15, main tent.
1 p.m. – Cooking Demo #2, main tent
1:20 p.m. – Sack race, main tent
1:40 p.m. – Cooking Demo #3, main tent
2 p.m. – Three-legged race, all ages, main tent
2:20 p.m. – Cooking demo #4, main tent
2:40 p.m. – Fish head bobbing, main tent
3 p.m. – Cooking demo #5, main tent
3:20 p.m. – Fish head toss, main tent
3:40 p.m. – Cooking demo #6, main tent
4:30 p.m. – Fish to Schools recipe contest
7 p.m. – Pumyua Concert, Odess Theater, SJ campus

Sunday
9 a.m. – Tee off for “Who’s Your Buddy Who’s Your
Pal” Golf Tourney. Signup 747-5663. Sea Mountain Golf Course.