Exclusive: A new food festival is coming to Abu Dhabi

The upcoming Seafood and Music Festival will include the most delectable ocean catches, concerts and fishing demonstrations.

Variation of Grilled Prawns and Salmon with Fresh Lemon. Getty Images
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Seafood lovers rejoice.

After carnivores ate to their heart’s content in December with the Big Grill Festival, it will now be the turn of the fish lovers and pescatarians to get involved in the culinary fun with next month’s inaugural Seafood and Music Festival.

Held at the Yas Marina, from the 21 to 23 March, the free event aims to celebrate all things edible from the sea.

A slew of restaurants, specialising in ocean catches, are set to take part in the event with special festival menus, in addition to demonstrations from chefs and local fisherman. An announcement of which food vendours will appear in the festival will arrive soon.

A music festival

With the promenade set to host two stages, a series of soon to be announced DJs and bands will be on hand to perform at the festival.

The festival will begin with a one-day music festival. Doors will open on Thursday, March 21, at 5pm with the supporting band taking the stage an hour later. The headlining act will perform at 8pm.

The following day’s sees the festival beginning at midday with a program that includes a floating sea-food market selling the freshest goods and DJ performance sets with doors closing at midnight. The final day, on Saturday March 23, will see a program of cooking demonstrations, family performances and more music from local and regional DJs.

A family flavour

Families are encouraged to view the event as a fun day out.

There will be programing tailor made for children including the appearance of clowns, acrobats and unicyclists, stilt walkers and a face painting stand.

There will also be a 20-minute dance show based on the classic children's movie The Little Mermaid. The show will be followed by a meet and greet with the cast.

Seafood and Music Festival will be held from March 21 to March 23 at Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi. Free.