00:00We're holding a festival of the sea. It's going to be a celebration of everything from the entire peninsula.
00:04There's going to be langoustines, oysters, squat lobsters, whatever you like.
00:08It's a great place for all the family. Loads of things for the family to get up to.
00:11We've got face painters, we've got mermaids, we've got things for the kids to do, activities,
00:18and also there's going to be demonstrations of seafood cooking and things like that.
00:22Loads of good chefs, loads of really tasty things for the family to get their teeth into.
00:26It's going to be Saturday, Sunday the 29th and 30th of March from 10 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon.
00:31Come and bring your family. It's going to be a great event.
00:34The reason we've chosen the Barras for the festival of the sea this year is we're trying to re-establish
00:39the link Glasgow used to have with the Clyde fisheries.
00:43We have some of the best seafood in the world and we export it all across Europe
00:47but we don't really consume it domestically.
00:50So our office is in the Brigitte which used to be the largest fish market in Glasgow
00:54and the Barras actually, if you think back right to the start of Maggie McIver,
00:58one of the first things she was selling here was fish.
01:01So we're trying to re-establish that link with the city centre and the Clyde.
01:06The point of this festival is absolutely to get people thinking about how they can use fresh produce
01:10but also to think about the people who catch that produce for them and what their connection to that is.
01:15So yeah, it's really joining the dots so that people can understand the providence of good food as well.
01:20So it's absolutely vital. Fishermen are a national resource and it's part of our culture.
01:25It's woven deep in our culture.
01:26It's to celebrate fishing and raise the profile.
01:28This shellfish is like all we catch on the west coast of Scotland
01:32and the people that live in Glasgow very seldom get a chance to make use of it, to buy it.
01:40So it's a good chance for us to showcase our catches.
01:43You know this is about getting it off the boat and getting it to you on the plate as quickly as possible
01:47and appreciating that freshness.
01:48Today we've brought some fresh langoustines, some king scallop meat, live lobsters and live brown crab.
01:55It was just caught yesterday from around the waters of Tarbert Macfayne, the island of Guia, the island of Jura, all inshore waters.
02:04The UK is known for its fish and chips which is great but there's so much more on offer
02:10and a lot of that obviously gets exported and people rely on those markets
02:14but there's definitely space to celebrate that seafood domestically as well
02:18and how it can be cooked, how it can be enjoyed and how fresh it is.
02:22I love seafood so I would eat it all day.
02:24We're selling Clyde Court langoustines, crabs, lobsters, scallops, all caught in the Clyde.
02:32The Scottish folk are not used to seeing this sort of stuff because most of it goes abroad
02:36and it's great to put it out and show to the public to see what they can get in their own country.
02:41Everything we source comes from the north of Scotland
02:43and we've got a breadth of about 80 suppliers that we buy different things from throughout the year.
02:47Fish, to my mind, is the original convenience food.
02:50It doesn't take long to prepare, it doesn't take long to cook.
02:53It's so important for Scotland to showcase its seafood.
02:56We don't use it enough, we especially don't use our shellfish enough
02:59so I think having an event like this where people can come in and have it accessibly
03:03to buy a lobster or to try nephrops on the plate fresh from the sea, it's a fantastic opportunity
03:09and it's just a really great cultural thing to get involved into.
03:12And you can speak to actual fishermen and ask about how to cook your shellfish.
03:16Scotland has a coast all the way round.
03:18It's an amazing asset that we have and fishing is in our blood.
03:21We have salt in the veins, so I think to bring it into the city centre
03:24and remind people that the Clyde is here and Glasgow's been built on fishing.
03:29Fishing is a hard job but a very fulfilling job.
03:33It's small family businesses that support small communities.
03:37The catch that we produce and sell supports many people in these communities,
03:43not just the fishermen themselves.
03:45For every one fisherman, there's probably five people ashore being supported by that one business.
03:52It's not all about industrial fishing, it's about small inshore artisanal fishermen.
03:58The Festival of the Sea 2025 will be happening on the 29th and 30th of March
04:03from 10am to 4pm and it will be at Suffolk Street on the Barrows.
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