WASHINGTON: Port Canaveral commissioners on Wednesday rejected a request by event promoter Brevard Productions Inc. to hold a three-day seafood festival next February in the port’s Cove area. Commissioners said the proposed Feb. 24-26 Port Canaveral Seafood and Music Festival is too big for the port to handle, creates a risk of interfering with the port’s cruise operations and would be detrimental to the port’s Cove restaurant tenants.
Promoter Giles Malone of Brevard Productions projected that the festival would draw 5,000 people a day to the port. His company held a similar festival at the port on Feb. 26-28, a Friday through Sunday. It drew about 7,000 people on Friday, 11,000 on Saturday and 7,500 on Sunday. Wednesday’s vote to reject Malone’s request was 4-1, with Canaveral Port Authority Vice Chairman Wayne Justice voted to support holding the festival at the port. Port Commissioner Bruce Deardoff said the proposed seafood festival is “just too big of an event for Port Canaveral. Something this big, with all these food vendors, I think it belongs more in the Cocoa Expo than it does at Port Canaveral.”
Deardoff also said he was opposing the request because the port’s Cove merchants are against it. Port Authority Secretary/Treasurer Tom Weinberg described the festival as “too overwhelming” and “not sized correctly” for the port, especially since it is a for-profit event for the promoter. “This is out of sync” with core port businesses, Weinberg said. “This just doesn’t fit here.” Weinberg said “the downside risk” for Cove tenants of having the festival at the port “is immense.”
