Starting next week, the 5th-annual South Beach Seafood Festival will be back on the shores of Miami Beach—and it’s coming back bigger and better than ever. Sponsored by Breakthru Beverage Florida, CI Management, and a handful of partners, this festival officially kicks off stone crab season in Miami every October. Taking place at Lummus Park, this sand-in-your-toes event isn’t your typical outdoor festival. For one, it’s under the warm South Florida sun, features haute Miami Beach restaurants, raises money for child nutrition, includes 30+ open-food-and-bar stations, and has a week of food and wine events and top chef battles leading up to it. In short, this is one celebration of food you don’t want to miss.
Intrigued? We thought so. Find out everything you need to know about SOBE Seafood Festival 2017, below!
A Whole South Beach Seafood WEEK
Because why limit the fun to one day? This year, the week-long events include:

Crabs, Slabs, & Cabs (Tuesday, October 17 at 6:30 p.m.): Hosted by Jackson Family Wines and Menin Hospitality, this new event will couple Miami chefs with a Jackson Family Master of Wine for exclusive surf n’ turf-and-wine pairings. This walk-around tasting event will take place at Shelborne Miami Beach’s VIP pool deck garden. Shelborne Miami Beach is located at 1801 Collins Avenue. Tickets are priced at $100, and include goody bags, food-and-wine pairings, and more.

Cooking and Cocktails (Wednesday, October 18 at 6:30 p.m.): Join Executive Chef Sean Brasel, of Meat Market, and Celebrity Chef Fernando Desa, of GOYA, as they create a six-course, tapas-style seafood dinner at Meat Market on Lincoln Road. Each course will be paired with a Herradura cocktail that a Herradura brand ambassador and Ezra Pattek, lead mixologist of Meat Market, will help you make yourself. This sit-down event will take place at Meat Market Miami. Meat Market Miami is located at 915 Lincoln Road. Tickets are priced at $100.

An Evening At Joe’s, Presented by La Crema (Thursday, October 19 at 6:30 p.m.): This event, which takes place in Jessie’s Room at Joe’s Stone Crab, will include a five-course, wine-pairing meal by Chef Andre Bienvenu, of Joe’s Stone Crab, and Jackson Family Wines’ Master Sommelier, Thomas Price. The culmination of this night will be to taste the world’s freshest stone crab catch of 2017—which event guests will be some of the first to experience. This sit-down event will take place at Joe’s Stone Crab. Joe’s Stone Crab is located at 11 Washington Avenue. Tickets are priced at $500.

VIP #ChefShowdown (Friday, October 20 at 7 p.m.): Hosted by Cambria Winery, this competition pits Miami’s top 16 executive chefs against each other and lets the guests choose the winners. Hosted inside the Range Rover VIP Hospitality Village and GOYA Culinary Pavilion, chefs will be paired head-to-head in a total of eight different seafood battles. Guests will sample the food at each station and vote to decide this year’s champions. The event will range from Battle Crab, Battle Surf N’ Turf, and Battle Taco, to Battle Fish, Battle Shrimp, Oyster Pit Battle, the 2nd Annual Herradura Showdown, and more. Our favorite chefs to look out for include: Chef Andre Bienvenu (Joe’s Stone Crab),  Chef Santiago Gomez (Tacology), and Chef Massimo Giannattasio (Cibo Wine Bar). Adding to its allure, this event will fuse competition-level food and tropical cocktails with live entertainment. This walk-around tasting event will take place at Lummus Park. The entrance to Lummus Park will be located at 12 Street and Ocean Drive. Tickets start at $150.

The Main Event: South Beach Seafood Festival 2017
This all-day festival, brought to you by Kendall Jackson and presented by Coca-Cola and Jack Daniel’s, welcomes over 13,000 seafood lovers to the sunny shores of South Beach. Sitting right on the sand at Lummus Park, this walk-around tasting event will feature special pop-up cafés from 18 of Miami’s top chefs, open bars, wine pairings, live music, a Jack Daniel’s Beach Club, iHeart Radio djs, culinary demos, a VIP Dance Club, and more. This festival will take place on Saturday, October 21, from Noon to 7 p.m. The entrance to Lummus Park will be located at 14 Street and Ocean Drive. Those with VIP tickets will get exclusive access to the festival until 9 p.m.

Buy Tickets!
Interested in any of these events? Get your tickets here.

A Way to Give Back
This festival isn’t just delicious; it’s for a good cause, too. When you buy tickets to any South Beach Seafood Week event, a portion of proceeds will benefit the Community Initiative Foundation’s “Eat Smart” program. This program works with schools to provide healthy weekend meals and nutritional guidance to children in the Miami Beach community.
Happy dining!
By Jennifer Agress | Miami Editor