Some events for your diary:

8th July 2007: 9th Annual Seafood Festival -    begins at mid-day. Held on the Quay, stalls run from the inner harbour to the harbour mouth. Loads of fish and shellfish are cooked in front of you by experts and enthusiasts alike – there is beach art and brass bands, mackerel barbecues and jazz, shanty singers, crab-picking and catching competitions and whelk racing –
Music in the evening at the pier head!

To celebrate the bicentenary of Aberaeron and its harbour:

28^th July 2007: Boats in the bay/ Venetian Night/ Fireworks

Celebrating Aberaeron’s Bicentennial Festival. Held at Aberaeron Harbour 8.30pm.

29^th July 2007: Ecumenical Service

Alban Square at 11am.

30^th July 2007: Unveiling the plague & pig roast.

Alban Square at 6.30pm. Admission £7.00 including refreshments.

1^st August 2007: Stars on the square with Catrin Finch.

Alban Square. Gate open 4.30pm. Concert starts 7pm.

Admission – Adults £15.00 Primary schoolchildren £3.00

2^nd August 2007: Children’s Tea Party

Alban Square. Admission £1.00

3^rd August 2007: Aberaeron Rocks

Local young bands live in Alban Square. Starts 7.30pm. Admission £5.00

4^th August 2007: Bicentenary Ball

Aberaeron Memorial Hall 8pm. Admission £30.00

For more information about the Bicentenary Festival please ask at the Tourist Office on the quay.
12th August 2007: The Welsh Cob Festival -
“The Aberaeron Festival took the Horse to the People in a spectacular attempt to raise awareness of the breed.”
27th August 2007: Aberaeron Carnival
Probably the best carnival in Wales with plenty of jazz from the Adamant Jazz Band.  The parade starts at 1:30 on the quay.

1st September 2007: A Celebration of the Humble Mackerel

 THE STORY OF THE HIVE ON THE QUAY
In the days when ships used Aberaeron harbour, they would be moored at the far end of the wharf, known then as Cadwgan Buildings. Coal was off-loaded to be stored in the arched ground floor whilst grain was stored on the floor above in the long arm of the building. The smaller arm was the weigh house, and had an iron plate in the road where the horse drawn carts were weighed before and after loading.
James and Margaret Holgate, with Sarah and Louisa, came to Aberaeron in 1957 with 200 hives and the Quay took on a new lease of life. The weigh house became our extracting room and soon, with 500 hives, the rest of the building became a factory producing very good quality clover honey from this area. Later expansion of products included Honey Marmalade, nougats and other honey preserves.
The product side of the business was sold in 1976 and moved to Tywyn – now a huge concern known as Halo Foods – and the bees were sold before James Holgate died in 1986.
We had experimented with Honey Ice Cream in 1970, selling it through the wall onto the street: the present day kiosk is three times bigger and is an indication of how important this part of the business has become. When we could no longer gather our own honey, we bought it from local beekeepers producing the same fine honey and the range of Honey Ice Cream flavours has increased to the choice we offer today.
In 1975, Margaret and Sarah opened a small café in the old weigh house to sell special ice creams, good coffee and tea with home-made cakes. We progressed quickly to early suppers, including the legendary savoury pancakes and Cawl which still feature on our menu from time to time, and later we added the conservatory. We now offer a great variety of Regional recipes specializing in fish and organically produced food.
More recently, Peter and Will have joined our family: Peter with his own boat provides us with shellfish from Cardigan Bay, and Louisa and Will run the Fish on the Quay shop across the courtyard and sell the freshest fish you’ll ever taste.
We can now seat 60 to 70 people and we need a staff of 25 in the high season. It’s a long way from the days of coal and grain – we’ve had 30 years of adventure, angst and entertainment – but we all look forward to welcoming you for the next 30!