Hot day, hot crowd for Seafood Festival

Saturday was all about the drinkers at Grovetoberfest, Sunday was all about the foodies as people crowded Peacock Park two days in a row for two spectacular events. I do have a problem though with events charging people to enter and then expect them to pay as they go. $25 at the door, $15 online was a bit much when you are then expected to pay for everything inside; $7 for smoothies and up to $49.99 per pound for stone crab claws seemed high. Some claws sold for $5 each, which I suspect comes out to the same price.

I don't think they sold as many stone crabs because of the pricing, but I did see a lot of ceviche selling and there was a very long line for lobster rolls, which always reminds me of New England. I am trying to eat raw, so the ceviche was perfect for me, I had a couple of them.

I do have one request for future events in the park -- shade. It felt like 150 degrees on Sunday and there was no comfortable place to eat and drink, I left early because of that and many others may have, too. The event itself was great. It brought out a lot of people. Most of the crowd were not from the Grove at the seafood festival. Yesterday, a very large percentage of the Grovetoberfest crowd were locals. Not sure what they says about Coconut Grove, but that's interesting.

I was told by one friend who works in a restaurant, that the overflow after the beer festival Saturday night, from Peacock Park, into the restaurants was great. After all that drinking, people stayed in the village to eat.

More photos of the Seafood Festival here.