Join Maritime Washington at this year’s Bellingham SeaFeast, October 5 and 6 on the shores of Squalicum Harbor.
The aroma of freshly grilled salmon drifts on the salty sea breeze as you feast on a bounty of seafood. Around you, musicians perform nautical tunes, kids build toy boats, and artists display an array of paintings, carvings, and sculptures. Welcome to Bellingham SeaFeast: a yearly festival celebrating seafood and our region’s shared maritime heritage.
SeaFeast, however, is more than just an annual event—it’s also become a year-round beacon for seafood lovers and community spirit. Leading an organization like this takes an ambitious and delicate hand. Kevin Coleman, Executive Director of Bellingham SeaFeast, is up to the task—and is motivated to make big change for the greater Bellingham community. Kevin faced a life-changing moment in 2021 when he had a heart attack. The experience inspired him to create a legacy that could help to improve the lives of others.
A Feast for the Senses
At the heart of Bellingham SeaFeast is its vibrant festival, where seafood takes center stage. “[Attendees] can expect to see a lot of food,” says Kevin. From oysters on the half-shell to salmon grilled by members of the Lummi Nation, the festival showcases a diverse array of seafood experiences. The festival also brings together a wide variety of groups—from Tribes and local fishers to city officials, nonprofits, and businesses—all celebrating Bellingham’s rich maritime heritage and dynamic waterfront culture.
Kevin is particularly proud of the relationship he has built with local Tribes, including Lummi Nation, Nooksack and Swinomish Tribes, and even reaching beyond Whatcom and Skagit County to the Muckleshoot and Tulalip Tribes. “I’m hopeful that by working with the Tribes and working with the waterfront, we can start building some really positive relationships and start bringing in some really wonderful conversations and storytelling so that we can embrace what we don’t know.”
A Growing Festival
Since its inception in 2016, Bellingham SeaFeast has expanded significantly. Initially a one-day event funded by the City of Bellingham, the festival bounced back from the pandemic by celebrating “SeaFeast Lite” in 2021 with about 5,000 attendees, and it hasn’t stopped growing since. Kevin joined Bellingham SeaFeast in 2022 and quickly got to work, recruiting over 80 vendors for his first festival. By 2023, the event spanned two days and attracted 13,000 attendees to the waterfront.
“We brought our ‘KISS (Keep It Simple Seafood) at the boathouse,’ where we did some cooking lessons, we had the [Lummi Nation] Black Hawk singers and dancers, [and] we had some great Indigenous bands and rappers. Our beer garden was massive; we had vendors that sold out of food the first day and had to leave and couldn’t come back—which was a great problem to have,” said Kevin. “We turned the fisherman’s pavilion into an expo hall [where] we had all of our education, our passports, and everything that went on for the entire weekend.”
The SeaFeast passport invites participants to learn about the Education and Outreach booths at the festival by completing activities and be entered into a prize drawing for completing the passport.
Year-Round Community Impact
More than just a festival, however, SeaFeast is developing into a comprehensive program that helps the community access seafood. Their KISS blog offers cooking tips and how-to videos with local chefs, while their Boat to Table program connects fishers directly with consumers and provides free seafood meals for underserved areas. In 2023, the Boat to Table program served 420 meals. This year, their goal is 1,200 meals.
Kevin also regularly appears on “Love Your Waterfront,” a podcast produced with the Working Waterfront Coalition of Whatcom County that showcases history, businesses, art, and ecology along the Bellingham waterfront. Bellingham SeaFeast and Love Your Waterfront have both received grants from the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area in support of their work.
Bellingham SeaFeast 2024 Preview
“This year is going to be a lot of fun,” said Kevin. In addition to the food, performances, art, and vendors that attendees have grown to love, new attractions include the “SeaFeast Flip Off” pinball tournament with a $1,500 prize and opportunities for kids to build with LEGO alongside local LEGO Masters. A local ship manufacturer is also working with the LEGO experts to build a model of a vessel that will be unveiled at the festival.
Leading up to this year’s festival, Bellingham SeaFeast will host ‘Eat Local Week’ from September 21 to 28, culminating in ‘Day on the Bay’ on September 28, a free self-guided event featuring 12 waterfront stops where visitors can meet fishers, tour boats, visit touch tanks, learn to crab, dive into maritime history, and more.
“Whether it’s [through] art programs, a design contest, or a food roundup,” said Kevin, “we’re trying to raise awareness of not only our waterfront and why it’s important, but also seafood and why that’s important, and what seafood can do for your body.”
As Bellingham SeaFeast approaches, Kevin’s work to expand its audience and impact within the community continues. His vision of a lasting legacy is becoming a reality as Bellingham rallies around the festival, offering an extraordinary celebration of seafood and shared maritime heritage.