{"id":62649,"date":"2025-11-27T13:19:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T13:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/62649\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T13:19:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T13:19:43","slug":"ruskin-seafood-fest-is-a-wrap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/62649\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruskin Seafood Fest is a wrap"},"content":{"rendered":"

By LOIS KINDLE<\/p>\n

Organizers of the 35th Ruskin Seafood Festival called the Nov. 15\u201316 celebration a perfect blend of sunshine, seafood and community spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had at least 20,000 people turn out, the weather was perfect and we saw lots of happy faces,\u201d said Melanie Davis, executive director of the SouthShore Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople appreciated the gesture of no park fee, thanks to four generous sponsors who came together to cover park entry\u2014Advent Health, Elite Marine Dock & Seawall, Armetta\u2019s Gelato & Caff\u00e8 and our past chamber president, Ray Monahan,\u201d she continued. \u201cThey also liked how we offered free admission to the festival like we did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlights included the new Ridley at Waterset Sensory Zone, which Davis noted was \u201cpacked the entire time,\u201d and Maggie\u2019s Farm and the Oceanville Family & Kids Stage, which featured \u201cmore than 200 seriously talented performers,\u201d she said.
Positive comments about the variety of vendors and food options flowed freely.<\/p>\n

\u201cYears ago at this festival almost every food vendor was from an area outside of South Shore,\u201d Davis said. \u201cNow at least 75% are local, and our food choices are much wider. Once only fried, now they include grilled, blackened, sauteed, steamed\u2014you name it. Roots Southern BBQ\u2019s catfish stew was actually a conversation piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

At its heart, the Ruskin Seafood Festival is a celebration of South Shore itself\u2014its people, its businesses and its enduring sense of community. Each year, the event strengthens the local economy and boosts its pride, which is why the chamber continues to host it.<\/p>\n

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LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
Birdhouse Showcase, seen here at the beginning of crafter row, was certainly one of the most colorful booths at the 35th Ruskin Seafood Festival.<\/p>\n

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LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
Maggie\u2019s Farm offered free photo ops and cow cuddles of their friendly, 7-month-old pet Charolais cow, Gypsy, seen here with her best friend, Connie Magnolia.<\/p>\n

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SOUTHSHORE CHAMBER PHOTO
The Oceanville Family & Kids Stage featured more than 200 children, performing all kinds of music, dance, gymnastics and dramatic arts acts at the recent Ruskin Seafood Festival.<\/p>\n

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COURTESY PHOTO
A four-legged visitor enjoys the new Beacon Emergency Veterinary Clinic Dog Bark Yard at this year\u2019s Ruskin Seafood Festival.<\/p>\n

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LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
A woman checks out the farm-grown, handmade products at Maggie\u2019s Farm tent\u2014moringa, tallow creams, perpetual vanilla and more\u2014as co-owner Bill Burnes awaits her selection.<\/p>\n

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BETH STEIN PHOTO
Parents and kids found plenty of family-friendly, hands-on activities at the Firehouse Cultural Center tent at the 35th Ruskin Seafood Festival.<\/p>\n

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SOUTHSHORE CHAMBER PHOTO
The star of the Ruskin Seafood Festival is, of course, seafood and plenty of it; however, options were plentiful for landlubbers.<\/p>\n

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COURTESY PHOTO
There were lots of fun offerings for children at this year\u2019s Ruskin Seafood Festival, including face painting, as evidenced by this little festivalgoer.<\/p>\n

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LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
Owners Anita Estacion, left, and Melissa Hartmann show a couple of their handmade items, repurposed from recyclable materials at the We Dig Plants and More vendor booth.<\/p>\n

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LOIS KINDLE PHOTO
Festivalgoers crowd the main thoroughfare of the 35th Ruskin Seafood Festival, celebrated Nov. 15-16 at E.G. Simmons Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By LOIS KINDLE Organizers of the 35th Ruskin Seafood Festival called the Nov. 15\u201316 celebration a perfect blend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-62649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}