MEDIA INFORMATION23rd January 2017

A Decade of Food, Fishing and Festivities− Fish Tales as Pommery Dorset Seafood Festival celebrates 10-year

anniversary in 2017 −

Pommery Dorset Seafood Festival celebrates its 10-year milestone, 8th – 9th

July 2017, with Fishy tales from the festival over the years. Located on Weymouth Harbour, the festival draws crowds of over 50,000 people and hosts some of the top names in seafood produce, chefs, and fishing.

This year, to celebrate the decade milestone and continue to highlight the very best of the seafood world, the Pommery Dorset Seafood Festival launches ‘Fish Tales’. Fish Tales is a forum attracting top TV personalities, journalists, seafood experts and salty seadogs to discuss everything from historical anecdotes to protecting our waters in modern times. The event is hosted by Dorset based, BAFTA-winning script writer, author and passionate fisherman, Nick Fisher.

Since its launch in 2008, the Pommery Dorset Seafood Festival has rapidly grown to become the largest ‘free to attend’ seafood event in Europe and has raised over £70,000 for The Fishermen’s Mission, its partner charity. The ethos of the festival has always been to celebrate the quality and diversity of

seafood and to promote Dorset’s inseparable links with the sea and fishing communities. Anna Wallis, Festival Director, commented: “We are so excited to celebrate the 10th

anniversary of the Pommery Dorset Seafood Festival, and in particular launch Fish Tales. This

element of the festival brings passion, knowledge and story-telling together, in a unique and

intimate setting, attracting experts, seafood veterans and even a few top TV names. It’s a

seafoodie’s dream!”

Weymouth's 17th-century Old Harbour is a beautiful setting for the Pommery Dorset Seafood

Festival, and widely regarded as one of the most picturesque harbours in Europe. Visitors can

enjoy the hustle and bustle of the food stalls, or relax with a glass of Pommery champagne

which watching the boats float by. The event offers active with ‘How To’ sessions, seafood

tastings, over 100 stands, some of the UK’s top chefs in action and some exciting new

entertainment aspects.

A not-for-profit event, the organisers raise money for the Fishermen’s Mission.

Ends

Editor’s Notes

Issued on behalf of Pommery Dorset Seafood Festival by In The Bag PR

For more information please see www.dorsetseafood.co.uk or follow us on Facebook, Twitter

and Instagram.

For further information please contact; Sophie Kermani, Director – In The Bag PR

TEL: 07739554794 and EMAIL: sophie@inthebagpr.co.uk

Dorset Seafood Festival represents the UK’s largest, free-to-attend seafood festival, recently

winning Gold in the Dorset Tourism Awards for Tourism Event of the Year as well as Outstanding

Contribution to Tourism and Silver in the South West Tourism Excellence Awards in 2015/2016.

Nick Fisher

Nick is a BAFTA-winning scriptwriter and series creator with a diverse range of writing credits in film, radio, stage, journalism and books. He is currently working on BBC1’s top-rating prime-time hospital drama Holby City, for which he has written over 30 episodes. He also created and presented two fishing series Screaming Reels for Channel 4 and Dirty Tackle for BBC5Live.

He is a much-published expert in fishing and fish cookery having co-writen the River Cottage Fish Book with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Nick also wrote the River Cottage Sea Fishing Handbook and is one of a handful of contributors to the latest River Cottage title An A - Z of Ingredients.

Nick has been a much-loved columnist for The Shooting Times magazine for over 20 years, giving his personal view on all things fish and fishing related. He has covered every season, condition and global species yet still finds time to answer every letter and question his readers put to him.

And Nick’s debut novel Pot Luck, a dark and twisty murderous crime thriller set against the back drop of the Weymouth commercial crab fishing industry was recently published to critical acclaim by Peridot Press.

Charity Information - The Fishermen’s Mission

The Fishermen’s Mission is the only fishermen’s charity that provides emergency support

alongside practical and emotional care. It helps all fishermen, active or retired, and their

families. It does this by:

Offering immediate assistance, day or night, to the families of fishermen who have been

killed or seriously injured

Looking after the survivors of fishing boat accidents · Helping injured or ill fishermen to

find medical help · Finding emergency housing and food if necessary

Supporting fishermen’s families in the case of illness, distress or financial difficulties

Alleviating loneliness by visiting retired fishermen and their families at home or in hospi-

tal

Offering welfare and support to overseas fishermen working in the UK fishing industry, espe-cially those who have to live onboard boats · Providing Christian pastoral and practical help, including problems with debt, sickness, bereavement, family difficulties and addiction prob-lems.