Great Inland Seafood Festival in Newport, KY

I'd never heard of this before. Granted, we don't often get down to the Newport area, but dang, how did I miss this?

http://www.greatinlandseafoodfest.com/

It's this weekend, starting August 11th and running through the 14th. Is anyone going, or has anyone been there in the past who could give me a better idea of what kinds of seafood concessions are available?

I've been to the seafood fest a bunch of times -- and the food is great, there's lots of variety, and plenty of non-seafood for the squeamish.

My only caveat is that for me anyway, seafood just isn't appetizing when it's 95 degrees with matching humidity, which it often is at this time of year!

Well, good point re: the heat and humidity. Very little sounds appetizing in that kind of weather! Right now, they're predicting a high of 85 on Saturday, 87 on Sunday, 30% chance of rain both days. I'm trying to convince myself this isn't too bad.



(Any hints on where to park, etc.? The website wasn't very detailed about that part...)

quote:

Originally posted by arianej

(Any hints on where to park, etc.? The website wasn't very detailed about that part...)

In Cincinnati at the Sawyer's Point parking lot or at one of the stadium lots, then walk across the "Purple People" bridge into the NOTL area. Easy walk and you don't have to deal with the pay to park garbage on the "levee".

quote:

Originally posted by Wallyum
In Cincinnati at the Sawyer's Point parking lot or at one of the stadium lots, then walk across the "Purple People" bridge into the NOTL area. Easy walk and you don't have to deal with the pay to park garbage on the "levee".

Thanks, Wallyum! We hope to go on Sunday, and we're completely unfamiliar with that area.

Let us know what you find.

Sorry, meant to update sooner, but real life caught up with me. All in all, it's not bad for a seafood festival in Ohio, but...well, read on. We were lucky that it turned out to be a very pleasant day--sunny, but not as hot as anticipated. We got there maybe 10-15 minutes before noon and there was plenty of free parking that wasn't that far from the festival.

Lots of places to sit, a nice band, and a quarter mile of so of seafood booths... Some better than others, I'd have to say. My husband got a fried shrimp po' boy and thought it was pretty decent, even if it used popcorn shrimp. No lettuce, mayo, tomato or onion, though. In the end, he said he'd rather just order the 1/2 lb. of shrimp dinner (same price) which is shrimp without the bun.

My sister got crabcakes, or should I say a crabcake and fries for $6. The crabcake was good, but six bucks for one?? Rip-off city, IMO. I was next to be burned, I got so-called fish and chips from a booth run by a restaurant...something started with a W out of Covington, KY, I forget what. What I got was soggy fries and two items that bore a remarkable resemblance to fish sticks. The $9.99 steamed lobster with butter and lemon was good, and most people seemed to opt for that. Some people even ate two apiece.

I'm not sure we'd go again...depends on how busy we were next year. There were some other promising looking offerings we didn't have stomach room to sample (cajun/creole stuff, including gumbo, dirty rice and crawfish, blackened snapper, grilled salmon). But I know which booths to avoid, that's for sure...


I wouldn't go through a whole lot of effort to attend, frankly. It's good for this part of the country where people don't consume as much seafood, but it just doesn't measure up to the seafood in coastal regions.