Case Studies
Hervey Bay Seafood Festival

Design Feature

Type of project
Festival, Local Government Initiative
State
Queensland
Location
Regional
Held on the second Sunday of August, the annual Hervey Bay Seafood Festival captures the Bay’s favourable winter weather and the best of the local wild catch seafood in a community and healthy food oriented day. Established in 1998, the event is hosted by The Hervey Bay Seafood Festival Association; a not-for-profit incorporated Association of local commercial fishers, and their members from the greater Hervey Bay region. The successful event attracts 10,000 visitors a year, who gather in the birthplace of the area’s fishing industry, Fishermens Park, to celebrate the local catch with generations of local professional fishermen.

The festival has become an anchor event for the 12 day Hervey Bay Ocean Festival that showcases the rich marine environment and aquatic lifestyle of the region. After winning three Australia Day Community Event of the Year awards, in 2011, the festival was awarded the Best Seafood Promotion in Queensland and went on to represent the state at the national level.
Celebrating local food
The Hervey Bay Seafood Festival was created by local fishermen to raise the profile of the area’s commercial fishing industry, to showcase the region’s seafood, and to grow the opportunities for seafood as an attraction and greater contributor to the lifestyle of Hervey Bay. 

The vision is to be positioned as the best seafood festival in Australia through staging festivals that showcase the fresh local wild catch seafood industry and promoting the health benefits associated with eating natural seafoods in the relaxed surrounds of Hervey Bay. The festival subsequently increases awareness of the importance of fresh food as part of a healthy diet, and at a regional scale, encourages the distribution and consumption of locally-produced food. 

To reach the current standard of patron satisfaction and ability to fund the event, the Association has built on its sense of place, both culturally and economically, within the regional landscape with innovative and adaptive event planning. Furthermore, the Hervey Bay Seafood Festival Association adopt several strategies each year to ensure the festival runs smoothly and effectively promotes a healthy food environment.
Strategies include:
  • Developing a business and marketing plan to provide strategic direction for the festival.  
  • Providing stallholders and stakeholders with a comprehensive event manual, media and stallholder kits for timely and relevant information.
  • Ensuring compliance and risk management processes are followed (for example - obtaining permits and safety management).
  • Ongoing evaluation and improvements - the lucky gate prize entry form includes email and postcode requirements to enable surveys to be distributed and postcode data collated to confirm the marketing reach.


Project team
  • The Hervey Bay Seafood Festival Association
  • Tourism & Events Queensland (TEQ)
  • Fraser Coast Regional Council
  • Fraser Coast Tourism & Events
  • Sirromet Winery
  • Urangan State High School
  • Haighs Jewellers
  • Additional support from the local business community, and community groups

Project cost
Annual budget of $140,000 to stage the event, funded through both cash and in-kind support.
Health value
  • The Hervey Bay Seafood Festival raises awareness about the health benefits that wild catch seafood contributes to the diet through cooking demonstrations, educates participants on how to buy, cook and store seafood and provides opportunities to taste a variety of seafood.
  • Furthermore, the festival has huge intrinsic value for the commercial fishers. It improves the mental wellbeing of local fishermen who gain pleasure from staging the event, showing their workplace, their products and sharing knowledge with the wider community.
  • The event provides a pride of place in the community and relief from the mental stress that wild catch fishers experience daily from the complicated management of fisheries.
  • Culturally, the festival showcases the story of Hervey Bay Seafood with a significant historical commercial fishing display by descendants of the settler fishing families and traditional owners (Butchulla).

Economic value
  • The festival provides stimulus to the regional economy with all goods and services sourced from the local region where possible.
  • Approximately 50% of attendees’ travel to Hervey Bay specifically for the event, consequently boosting tourism and visitation to the area.

Environmental value
  • The festival provides stimulus to the regional economy with all goods and services sourced from the local region where possible.
  • Approximately 50% of attendees’ travel to Hervey Bay specifically for the event, consequently boosting tourism and visitation to the area.

Social value
  • The festival provides stimulus to the regional economy with all goods and services sourced from the local region where possible.
  • Approximately 50% of attendees’ travel to Hervey Bay specifically for the event, consequently boosting tourism and visitation to the area.

Use value
  • The festival creates an opportunity for community groups and local small business to showcase their projects and products.
  • A learning component is inbuilt with informative displays and demonstrations relative to the marine environment and wild seafoods.
  • The festival brings the community together, and assists with creating social capital and a sense of place.

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