Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - About 350 people* came to Squirrel Cove for Seafest on Saturday May 20. There was a flow-though crowd and not much more than a third of this number appeared to be at the six-hour long festival at any given time.
“I think it's great it gets, a lot of cultures together and lots of different seafood,” said Sharon Francis, a Squirrel Cove resident and member of the Klahoose First Nation..
Curt Cunningham, owner manager of the Squirrel Cove General Store which hosted this year’s festival, added, “They've done an incredible job. We're gonna have a good day, a good summer, and this is gonna kick it off.”
There were unusually long line-ups at his store, and Cunningham later commented that his sales were more typical of peak tourist season than a normal Saturday in May.
Vancouver resident John Earl said that in terms of friendliness, good food and good music, Seafeast was the best festival he has seen in the past 50 years.
Some of the other visitors came from Victoria and Nanaimo.
Trude Allbright-Sweeney was a Cortes Island resident for more than four decades before she moved in with her daughter in Rochester, New York, last year.
“ I'm enjoying the Seafest. I've come every time it's here, and every time on Cortes. So far I don't think I've missed any.”
CC: What’s special about Sea Fest?
“Meeting all the people, all my neighbors. I don't meet when I'm back in the house, it's very nice. I love it.”
Her hearing is no longer what it used to be, and Trude’s companion typed my questions onto a cell phone so she could read them.
“It works,” I commented.
“But it works,” she laughed.
“I have one more question for her.”
“Okay,” responded her companion.
CC: Trude’s Cafe Konditorei used to be a favourite stop for visitors and local residents alike. Does she miss the cafe?
“My cafe: Yeah, In a way. It was a lot of work, but it was fun having the people come. It was fun baking for it and it was good coffee because I swore when I open a cafe I'll have the best coffee I can find, which I did. The coffee beans I used came from Quadra. I said maybe I had to send away for it, but I didn't. It was even delivered to the house. Isn't it great?” replied Trude.
Local filmaker Morgan Tams said, “It's fantastic to have Seafest return after the hiatus of Covid and particularly to have it in such a beautiful space as Squirrel Cove, to reflect the diversity of the island by having it in a different location is really nice, and nice to just see everybody here and start to gather again. It's a really nice, hopefully auspicious start to the summer.”
Squirrel Cove resident Bobbie Jean Hanson added, “ I love that it's in Squirrel Cove. It's a fun new location, sort of revitalizes the area a bit. It's great.”
