Celebrating 40 Years!
The 40th Annual Charlestown Seafood Festival Announces 2025 Line Up of Food Vendors, Live Bands & Entertainment
August 1, 2 & 3, 2025
It’s 3 Full Days of Non-Stop Entertainment & A Gastronomic Extravaganza of The BEST Seafood!
CHARLESTOWN, RI (June 27, 2025) — Save the date! The Charlestown Seafood Festival - named a “Top 100 Event in North America” and listed as one of 10 Best Summer Seafood Festivals in the Northeast - is thrilled to announce that the 40th Annual Charlestown Seafood Festival will be held this summer on August 1, 2, & 3, 2025 at Charlestown’s Ninigret Park in Rhode Island.
The Seafood Festival is the biggest fundraiser for the Charlestown Chamber of Commerce. The funds raised by The Charlestown Seafood Festival are vital to the Chamber’s mission to support local businesses and boost tourism.
“We are beyond excited to celebrate our 40th Annual Charlestown Seafood Festival in 2025! This event supports almost everything we do for the community. The Charlestown Seafood Festival is our primary fundraiser,” said Heather Paliotta, executive director of the Charlestown Chamber of Commerce and director of The Charlestown Seafood Festival. “We have a full list of incredible food vendors (most are long time repeat vendors with a handful of new ones). We are excited to have Cousins Maine Lobster join us for the first time this year and Matunuck Oyster Bar will be back! Food vendors D & L Lobster and Kenyon’s Grist Mill have been with us since the beginning and we are thrilled to continue to have them join us to this day! Our daily live entertainment features live daily bands and lots of amusements – we are elated to announce Cushing Amusements as our new ride and game company; our beer, wine and hard seltzer tents will be filled with beer from Budweiser and craft breweries, wines & Prosecco and a variety of hard seltzers. We are excited to continue to offer our kids zone, inside of the festival, with free activities for kids to include not only face painting, clowns, jugglers, and balloon twisters as well as games such as corn hole, ladder ball, sea horse ring toss, an ocean themed tic tac toe, checkers, big jenga, and a giant connect four.”
The Charlestown Seafood Festival is a three-day event which attracts tens of thousand of people. Those interested in becoming a festival sponsor or a commercial vendor at the festival should contact Kimberly Poland at 401-743-7272 or email sponsorships@polandmediagroup.com. Sponsorship information, as well as vendor forms and details about the event are all listed on the festival’s website.
More About The 40th Annual Charlestown Seafood Festival
This year’s event marks the 40th anniversary of the Charlestown Seafood Festival. This family- and community-oriented “seafood extravaganza” is well renowned as the area’s one and only “original seafood festival.” We proudly invite everyone to come on down and partake in the various dining opportunities, the great musical entertainment, fireworks, a classic car show, amusements, onsite camping, crafters and much, much more.
Rhodes Islanders have long appreciated their closeness and connection to the Atlantic Ocean, Narragansett Bay, Block Island Sound, the coastal salt ponds and beautiful estuaries of Southern Rhode Island. We’re proud of our vibrant maritime roots and culture. The seafood industry, seafood dinning and all our coastal resources are an integral part of who we are and what we do. To be a resident of Rhode Island - “An Ocean-Stater” - is truly a state of mind and an experience to behold.
A true Rhode Island experience, the Charlestown Seafood Festival, is proud to offer patrons the opportunity to dine on some of the freshest and most delicious native seafood from around the region. Each year this festival brings together a plethora of seafood harvesters and vendors, aquaculture growers, restaurateurs and concessionaires from up and down the east coast. Each day they steam up piles of fresh live native lobsters, prepare delicious lobster rolls, steam up baskets of succulent clams, steamers and mussels with corn, potatoes and butter, fry up bay and sea scallops, prepare Rhode Island’s official appetizer of calamari and much, much more. Exotic seafood including freshly boiled Cajun crawfish, Maryland style crab cakes, seafood jambalaya, and farm-raised alligator together with large Gulf shrimp and other delicious foods are all cooked for your dining pleasure onsite. Enjoy freshly harvested and locally grown littleneck clams and a variety of oysters cultivated in the salt ponds of South County. Dine on them served on the half-shell, chilled over ice with a wedge of lemon and your favorite cocktail sauce or vinaigrette. All while you take in the sights and sounds and enjoy the variety of entertainment.
Dining opportunities also include festival favorites such as burgers and french-fries, hot dogs, clam chowder and clam cakes, fish chowder, corn on the cob, spiral potatoes, chicken and beef, fish and chips, sausage and pepper sandwiches, steak sandwiches, fried dough, ice cream and many other dessert choices. The food choices abound at this festival and you’re guaranteed to find something that tempts your palate. What goes better with seafood and BBQ than frosty draft beer and chilled wine? Multiple beverage choices available for purchase on site; you must be of legal drinking age and have a valid photographic ID.
The Charlestown Seafood Festival offers patrons great outdoor musical entertainment. Your general event admission price includes non-stop concerts performed each day by a variety of musical talents including Doctor Brenda’s Rhythm Army, Whisky Knights Band and Mullett on Friday, August 1st. On Saturday, August 2nd come and enjoy the sounds of Purple Honey, The Senders, Raise Your Hands – a Bon Jovi Tribute Band and a true New England favorite, the awesome Dirty Deeds (AC/DC Tribute) for a night of classic rock that leads into our fireworks display that is not to be missed. Rounding out the weekend on Sunday, August 3rd enjoy Never Enuff, the ever popular swing sounds of Eight to the Bar, Fleetwood Heart and Take It To The Bridge.
In addition to great dining, refreshments and concert events, the festival hosts a variety of craft vendors, a large carnival by all new ride and game provider - Cushing Amusements (ride special, ‘Ride all the Rides’ on Friday afternoon from noon to 5 p.m. - August 1, 2025 for $35.00), an awesome mid-summer fireworks show on Saturday, August 2nd, 2025 at 9:00 PM (fireworks rain date Sunday, August 3rd, 2025), and, a classic car show on Sunday, August 3rd, 2025 starting at 11 AM.
General, daily admission to the Charlestown Seafood festival is $13.00 for adults, children 10 and under free, Military (With ID) and Senior (65 & older) discount $10.00; parking is free (a $2.00 parking donation encouraged). The event goes on daily rain-or-shine. Please keep pets at home. Self-contained RV camping is available on site. For more information and a detailed schedule of festival events and activates please log on to www.charlestownseafoodfestival.com or contact Executive Director Heather Paliotta at (401) 364-4031.
Connect With Charlestown Seafood Festival: Online | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube Channel
Connect With Charlestown Chamber of Commerce: Online | Linkedin | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube Channel
MEDIA CONTACT:
Kimberly J. Poland, Poland Media Group – (401) 743-7272, kimberly@polandmediagroup.com
