Crab fest disappoints

I have been to several seafood festivals in various parts of Australia and in my opinion and that of my visitors, the Crab Fest was pathetic.

The last festival I attended was the Abalone Festival at St Helens in Tasmania, which was magnificent with its myriad stalls cooking and presenting abalone in so many different ways, not like the Crab Fest’s few food stalls.

From memory there were six or eight stalls selling crab-flavoured dishes of great similarity; crab risotto, curried or paella-style crab and even only half a small crab, all sold at exorbitant prices.

One of my guests bought a crab salad roll and we counted three very small pieces of crab hidden in a mound of lettuce.

What has happened to the free samples one used to get in the very early days of the Crab Fest?

At the St Helens festival one paid a moderate admission fee and that covered all your sample dishes.