Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival
February 17-18, 2020

""It Takes a Fishing Village"

Because of its strong linkage of Community/Place/Occupation, the residents of the historic Cortez Fishing Village have a long memory and a worldview that is ecologically centered on the water that surrounds them. The host an annual festival that includes great seafood, arts and crafts, and music.

Just add great live sea shanty music, nautical arts, and crafts, children’s activities, environmental exhibits.

Maritime Museum

Each month the Florida Maritime Museum hosts "Music on the Porch", which is an open jam session held on the porch of the historic Burton store in Cortez.  Part of the history of our fishing village covers the time residents spent honing their crafts, both in art and music.  Every weekend in Cortez, after fishing, folks could be found playing music on a porch to an audience below.  We are determined to keep this rich musical heritage alive and have a core group that plays every third Saturday of the month here on the grounds of the Maritime Museum.  Our challenge is that the head of our core group (a retired fisherman) is in his eighties and we need to help him build the group up.  Our events are free, and open to anyone who wants to play, regardless of age or background.  One month we had a family on vacation that came to visit with all of their instruments, last month we had a vacationer who played the squeezebox and a pair of five-year-old twins who played the guitar and recorder.  We just want to get people on the stage and keep the heritage alive.  In the summer months, we have an indoor stage to use inside our historic 1912 schoolhouse.



We would love to partner with FOFF to bring more people and music to our events.  Our next Music on the Porch is set for April 21st, from 10-4, and we would love to have members of FOFF come out and perform.  Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.cortez-fish.org/fishing-festival.html

St Pete Shanties will be performing  Florida Maritime music