2010 Conch Festival set for November 27
July 9th, 2010
The Conch Festival is fun for the whole family
The Conch Festival is a uniquely Turks and Caicos event that celebrates our favorite mollusk, number one export, and a link to our islands’ fishing and maritime past. Held every year in the Blue Hills area of Providenciales (about a 15 minute drive from Villa del Mar) the Conch Festival features the island’s top chefs competing to see who can make the best conch based dishes. These guys get creative, too, whipping up all sorts of things you’d never think could include conch. Best of all, you get to be the judge, sampling all the dishes for a mere $25 and voting on your favorites. The Grand Prize winner gets a coveted trophy to display for a year in their restaurant.
For those of you not familiar with conch (pronounced: conk), it’s the snail-like animal that lives in those pretty white shells you find all over the beach and seabed in TCI. Our country is the leading producer of this great seafood product and it’s been a staple on people’s diets here since they first arrived. It’s a bit like calamari or squid, but tastes sweeter and can be eaten raw or cooked in any number of ways. It’s extremely healthy and tasty. It is also said to be a natural aphrodisiac, which may help explain its popularity as well.
The Conch Festival is a family-friendly day of games, live music, contests, sailing – all on the picturesque shores of the Blue Hills community – a true authentic Caribbean village where the first inhabitants of our island settled.
This year the Conch Festival is on November 27, which is right after US Thanksgiving. Why not make a long weekend of it in the Turks and Caicos and enjoy a fun, authentically native island festival. Check here for more details.
