Running a family business, Lifetime Private Retreats, which initiated the festival, has also offered Nick Hannaford insight into the potential of promoting island tourism through a “destination festival”.

The Seafood Feastival from April 27 until May 2 is billed as “a degustation of dining events over six days to suit all budgets”.

The festival will offer a rare opportunity for large groups to celebrate and appreciate the food and wine which islanders catch, grow, harvest and cook.

The festival program, listed as part of the SATC 2012 Tasting Australia event, encompasses dining events from formal, sit-down lunches to casual, substantial finger food, campfire cooking, seafood barbecues by the sea and exclusive dinners with celebrity chefs Pete Evans and Simon Bryant.

The festival opens with Evans sharing his signature fish recipes and cooking at tables on the Kingscote Wharf, accompanied by live musicians and singers. The festival’s main event, Tasting Kangaroo Island at the Wharf on Saturday April 28, will be an all-day seafood celebration plus local wines, music, entertainment, education, children’s games and art.

Take a cooking class with Rosa Matto a on April 28, followed by Oysters and Fizz on the Kingscote Wharf at sunset; a feast of oysters at the American River Wharf for lunch on April 29 and the same evening, an exciting fish dinner menu prepared by Simon Bryant on the Kingscote wharf; a gastronomic journey of Kangaroo Island at Southern Ocean Lodge on April 30; and a dreamtime banquet-style lunch menu combining Aboriginal and white Australian culinary history, on May 2 at Lifetime Private Retreats.

For full festival details and to make your bookings, visit goodfoodkangarooisland.com/

sea foodfeastival. Catherine Murphy