Placencia Lobster Fest, The First One Up For 2024

Lobster season opens on July first, which means that tourist destinations are gearing up for lobster festivities. Placencia will be hosting the first of three lobster fests scheduled for this year. The small, slow paced, coastal community has been putting on its lobster fest for almost three decades. This year’s event promises to be the biggest and most entertaining yet. News Five’s Paul Lopez travelled down to the peninsula on Thursday. He filed the following report.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

Placencia Lobster Fest is a once-a-year event that draws thousands of visitors to the village without fail.

 

Doyle Gardner, Owner, Doyle’s Smoke Yard

“Party and great energy, foodie a foodie paradise, people love it.”

 

The start of the lobster season is such a big deal for residents that it is worthy of having its own song.

 

Doyle Gardner

“Ih name spinny spinny…..it is the best.”

 

 

 

 

Placencia Loster Fest was launched in 1998 by the then village council and members of the Belize Tourism Industry Association Placencia Chapter. Elysia Dial, now the general manager at Barefoot Bar, joined the organizing team in 2001. The festival was established to help businesses in the tourist destination earn much needed income during the low tourist season.

 

Elysia Dial, General Manager, Barefoot Bar

“At first it was more like a rice and beans fest to be honest. We actually had to put out a rule for vendors to have some lobster dish on their menu because it is lobster fest. Originally, you know the parking lot, that is where lobster fest started out. It was just towards that cement pavement which was shell gas station. And that is where lobster fest was. One year we had a big wind storm come through right after Bowen and Bowen set up the tents and they crashed up into the house and there was no electricity. It was a lot of thing but we still got lobster fest going.”

 

Marcelo Sierra, the founder and former owner of Omar’s Little Kitchen, was among the first to participate in Placencia’s lobster fest. He has since handed over the restaurant to his children, but their presence at the weekend festivities continues.

 

Marcelo Sierra, Former Business Owner

“It was not as big and bombastic like now. Now dah some wild event the take place and different era, different people the different kind of businesses and so it grow a lot. So kudos to who the out deh the bun up deh eyes, I get enough of that.”

 

 

 

 

Reporter

“And I understand your restaurant had some sort of unique lobster dish in the days.”

 

Marcelo Sierra

“Yeah we started with a kind of a cultural way of doing our lobster.  We started with fire heart. We never use no gas range. All we had to do dah get some mango, craboo and grapes and people want to see it done culturally. A lot of business stray from that which is not good. Omar’s still have a fire heart outside, my daughter still dash thing pan that. I try mek deh keep it culturally. If you the do it culinary wise and culturally people wah love that because deh wah the pass and get that smell.”

 

 

In 2023, Doyle Gardner won the prize for best lobster dish at the event. He is returning to defend his title and he hopes that the number of chefs participating in the competition this year will increase from the handful that participated in the 2023.

 

Doyle Gardner

“I did a big lobster. I did it open cooked, charred first and then roasted garlic butter. My plating I think was what really won it. I used a big calabash. I still have that calabash upstairs. I should have brought that, but on the bottom of the young coconut leaf, half the coconut and the rice on top of that. I didn’t have any horns so I took some branches from the miniature bamboo shoots and stuck them in their and that was a part of the design pretty much. I already made my menu and everything. I just came off of vacation. I was in Barbados and San Pedro I am working on that title to keep that title. I already have my idea but I am not going to give it away right now.”

 

Fisherfolks are the backbone of Placencia Lobster Fest. They make it possible for hungry visitors to have that sea-to grill-to table experience. Kurt Godfrey Senior is a second generation fisherman. Long before Placencia Lobster Fest was established, Godfrey would go free diving for lobsters with his father off the coast of the peninsula. His children are doing lobster catching these days.

 

 

Kurt Godfrey Sr., Fisherman

“First we were free divers as my late father was the founder of free diving. It became a sport. Time change and we learn that you put shade which is a hidden under and then fast-forward the government sent us to Mexico and w learnt about casitas. Casitas is one I want to invent in Belize because it is a healthy way of catching lobster.”

 

 

Paul Lopez

“So for you being environmentally conscious is important.”

 

Kurt Godfrey Sr.

“That dah how I become a pro, because I environmental happy ever since I learn scuba and free dive. I throw back my young lobster, my females I throw them back, especially when they have eggs and people could tell you, my workers can tell you that I did that.”

 

Paul Lopez

“For lobster fest on average how much lobster can a fisherman sell for lobster fest celebration.”

 

Kurt Godfrey

“Talking for myself, from the casitas I could probably sell about two hundred pounds of whole live lobster.”

 

 

 

The festival begins on July fifth and ends on July seventh. A variety of entertainment and competitions have been organized for each of the three days. Warren Garbutt, the chairman of the village, says there will be no shortage of fun and food.

 

Warren Garbutt, Chairman, Placencia Village

“The event start very early on Friday around midday and then it goes to about two o’clock, two a.m. and then it starts again Sunday morning at ten and then it goes to about two a.m. and then Sunday again from ten until midnight. There is plenty of entertainment at the lobster fest grounds. It has grown tremendously over the years. We have a total of ninety booths this year. Of course mixed with food vendors, arts and craft, NGOs present sharing some the sustainable efforts. So it is a mix of different organizations and vendors.”

 

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.