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Buffalo Bayou Shrimp Festival: A Celebration of the Estuary

by  Zazil Farfan

Houston is called Bayou City because of the veins of slow-rolling, murky waterways that pepper our landscape. To help call attention to these all-but-forgotten rivulets that connect our swamps and bays as they feed our estuaries, Shrimp Boat Projects presents the Inaugural Buffalo Bayou Shrimp Festival this Saturday, October 4.

Shrimp Boat Projects is a long-term social practices art project directed by Zach Moser that explores the relationship between the local landscape and identities specific to Houston. The festival is being held to reconnect Houston to its native landscape and make people aware of the environmental impact of the city through the bountiful food that the landscape still produces.

The Buffalo Bayou Shrimp Fest will be held from 12pm-6pm under the shadows of the Houston skyline at Tony Marron Park (901 N. York Street, Houston, TX 77003). The family-friendly event will be free of charge and will feature a shrimp cook-off sponsored by Urban Harvest, live bands including Craig Kinsey and the Umbrella Man, and games and activities for all ages. Environmental groups will be on hand to teach attendees about Houston’s natural resources. The centerpiece of the event is the transformation of a working shrimp boat into a floating sculpture, The Divine Pelican. There will also be beer from Karbach Brewing and shrimp will be for sale. 

Make sure not to miss out on the festival’s center of attention, the Divine Pelican. The centerpiece of the festival, a result of the past four years of the work done by the Shrimp Boats Project, will be the transformation of a shrimp boat into a dope, colossal pelican sculpture that flies above the boat with its 40ft. wingspan as it makes its way through the Houston Ship Channel from Galveston Bay.

Let’s hope the Divine Pelican won’t be accompanied by ta flock of those crazy Galveston seagulls that drive us all nuts.

The Festival is being sponsored by Transported + Renewed, Creative Capital, and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership. For additional information about the festivities or the Shrimp Boat Project visit www.houstonshrimpfest.org, www.shrimpboatprojects.org, or the event’s Facebook page.

by Guest Author