It's a seafood festival. It's a boat show. It's a host of blues concerts. It's all that at the Cotee River Seafood Festival in New Port Richey.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published May 8, 2003
[Times photo: Lance A. Rothstein 2002]
Bring your wallet and your appetite to the Cotee River Seafood Festival Saturday and Sunday. There’s a boat show, too.
NEW PORT RICHEY - More than 30 boat dealers will exhibit their best watercraft at the Cotee River Seafood Festival & Bright House Networks Boat Show in New Port Richey's Sims Park from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The event was named "The Most Outstanding Special Event in the State of Florida" by Secretary of State Katherine Harris in 2001.
Just as popular as the boats are the "Blues by the River" concerts in Sims Park amphitheater on both days.
From noon to 5 p.m. Saturday there will be music by Willie Lomax Blues Review, Jennifer and the Venturas, the Damon Fowler Group and Steve Thorpe's Blues Orchestra - all free, thanks to sponsors Bourbon Street Nightclub and Encore Music.
For $5, you can stick around to listen to the Scott Holt Band and Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, featuring Sam Myers, from 5:30 to 9 p.m., then continue jamming on the same ticket at Bourbon Street a couple of miles south on U.S. 19. Funderburgh's band has won the W.C. Handy Award eight times.
On Sunday, the free entertainment from 1 to 5 p.m. includes Wendy and the Soulshakers, Keith Caton and the Accelerators and Blue Swamp.
Another highlight of the festival is $5 pontoon boat rides on the Cotee River beside Sims Park from noon to 5 p.m. both days.
For art lovers, there's an arts and crafts show and sale of nautically themed items. It's officially open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., but many of the artists stay open later on Saturday. There also are kids' activities.
And, of course, there's lots of seafood - and that doesn't even count the Cotee River Lion's Club's Mother's Day Brunch from 9 to 11 a.m. Sunday for just $3 a person. As a little bonus, Alltel wireless is offering people the chance to "Call Mom for Free" anywhere in the continental United States all day Sunday.
PREVIEW: The Cotee River Seafood Festival & Bright House Networks Boat Show, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sims Park, New Port Richey. $2 admission donation per day, except after 5:30 p.m. Sat., $5 fee for age 10 and older. For information, call (727) 842-8066. To get there, take Main Street east off U.S. 19 in New Port Richey and go over the Cotee River bridge. Take the first left on Bank Street, and you'll see the show around Orange Lake and in Sims Park.
