Sea Weed Festival

The California Seaweed Festival is a free, family-friendly event celebrating the seaweed diversity of California! The festival showcases seaweed ecology as well as applications in art, cooking, farming, science, sustainable technology, and conservation. The California Seaweed Festival is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Monterey Bay is one of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems on Earth. Its underwater forests of kelp and other seaweeds support an incredible web of life, from sea otters to abalone to the communities that steward this coast. This year’s festival invites everyone to Dive In.

Join researchers, innovators, chefs, and ocean advocates for a day of talks, demos, seaweed tastings, and hands-on exploration of the science, culture, and future of macroalgae.
At a moment when kelp forests along the Monterey Peninsula have dramatically declined, the festival is both a celebration of ocean biodiversity and an invitation to cultivate ocean abundance together.
Come curious. Leave inspired.

The festival moves to a different coastal location each year, so, every festival is unique, and carefully crafted to showcase how seaweed and ocean ecology intersect and support the coastal communities.

Learn from businesses, educational institutions, government entities, indigenous groups, non-profits, artists, food producers and craftspeople in the community as they showcase the complex relationships between California’s seaweeds, and communities.

Each year’s festival is a new adventure!