South Beach Seafood Festival
Festival · Art Deco Historic District ·
Annual seafood festival with top local restaurants, live music
Information
1400 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139 Get directions
Annual seafood festival with top local restaurants, live music
1400 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139 Get directions
"As a fundraiser for the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University, SOBEWFF carries higher ticket prices — it has raised tens of millions for the school — but there are plenty of events within the festival that are priced closer to a typical night out in Miami." - Olee Fowler
"Held in Lummus Park right on the sand, this festival lets you sample specialties from Greater Miami's top seafood restaurants — from classic Joe's Stone Crab to upmarket Uchi — while enjoying cooking demonstrations, chef competitions, live music, open bars, and standouts like fish tacos, lobster waffle cones, and mouthwatering ceviche." - Patricia Doherty Patricia Doherty Patricia Doherty is a writer who specializes in covering destinations, resorts, and cruises for Travel + Leisure and other publications. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines
"Returning to the sands of Miami Beach later this month, the Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF) kicks off its 21st year on Thursday, February 24 as a four-day event. I noted it returned just eight months after a heavily modified 2021 edition and was one of the first large-scale national events to resume after COVID-19 shutdowns; founder Lee Brian Schrager said last year’s return went "10 times" better than anticipated. Safety and comfort remain priorities, so guests can still expect the protocols introduced in 2021 — contactless ticketing, temperature checks, COVID-19 sniffing dogs, capacity restrictions, enhanced cleaning and sanitization, limiting physical contact, masking requirements, and one-way traffic flow. Capacity restrictions are being loosened this year after the festival lost millions in revenue in 2021, but organizers emphasize they are not trying to "make up" for that loss by overselling; instead, there are more smaller and mid-sized events than ever, including more than 30 seated dinners, nearly 20 master classes and wine seminars, and the signature walk-around outdoor tasting events, with A-list hosts such as Adam Levine, Kate Hudson, and Eva Longoria on the lineup." - Olee Fowler
"An annual, sprawling Miami food mega-event often described as “spring break for chefs,” it showcases celebrity cooks and high-priced ticketed tastings and dinners (examples cited include $350 “Best of the Best,” $250 Spanish dinners, and $325 fried-chicken events) and attracts major media and corporate sponsors such as the Food Network, Cooking Channel, The New York Times, Goya, LaCroix, American Airlines, and Audi. While it promises fans access to famed chefs, exclusive dishes, and a buzzy weekend of eating and drinking, it has been criticized for a party atmosphere that can enable harassment and for repeatedly under-representing women on its talent rosters (reports cited figures around 11–15 percent). The festival’s invitation of controversial chefs—notably a chef whose restaurant group faced 2016 lawsuits alleging a sexually charged, hostile workplace that were later settled, and another chef arrested in 2016 on an alleged domestic-assault charge that was later dropped—has intensified calls to revoke invitations to alleged abusers, replace them with women when appropriate, cover costs to enable women’s participation, and use festival influence to demand accountability rather than simply celebrating fame." - Meghan McCarron
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