From little things, big things grow.
Newcastle Tuna and Seafood Festival is fast becoming a case in point.
Launched in 2025, the festival is a month-long celebration of premium seafood, local hospitality and regional producers, anchored by a headline tuna-dissection event on June 28 as its hero experience.
Last year 15 Newcastle restaurants participated in the festival's "Tuna Trail" and prepared a limited-edition seafood dish for the festival. This year, 41 venues are taking part.
This year's newly-named "Tuna and Seafood Trail" gives restaurants, bars, seafood suppliers, oyster farms, Hunter wine partners and local venues the opportunity to deliver a diverse calendar of seafood-focused events and experiences across the city.
There are a few festival firsts in 2026: a Gyotaku event at Newcastle Art Gallery next week, 10 feature events, and a Seafood Trail Passport with plenty of prizes to be won.
Also, the festival will run throughout July, over four weeks, instead of the previous two.
Festival founder Taiyo Namba hopes the festival will evolve into a Dark Mofo-style event in the quieter winter months: a tantalising mix of art, food, culture and live performances that will attract tourists to the city and encourage locals to step out during the colder months.
"It's an economic activation, really, to help local businesses in what is typically a quiet time when it comes to customers, and which will probably be worse this year because of fuel costs and price hikes," Namba says.
Kicking off the 2026 festival calendar is Impressions of the Sea: Gyotaku of an 85kg Bluefin Tuna, a one-night-only event at Newcastle Art Gallery on Thursday, June 25, celebrating the meeting of art, ocean, culture and seafood. Artist Indeah Clark will bring the ancient Japanese art of Gyotaku fish printing to life on the night using ink-printing techniques to capture the scale, beauty and power of an 85-kilogram bluefin tuna. Tickets are $55 and on sale now.
Then there's the official launch event on Saturday, June 28, that proved so popular last year: the live carving of an 85-kilogram bluefin tuna at Nagisa Japanese Restaurant by chef Koji Harada from Japan, followed by an eight-course seafood lunch and bottomless Hunter Valley wines. Japanese drumming duo Taiko Oz will perform and there will be an auction of tuna knives and premium tuna cuts as well as a traditional sake ceremony.
This year, Namba has leased the Harbour Bar next door to cater for the 150 guests expected to attend. Limited tickets remain, so don't delay.
Tickets to the feature events are also expected to sell quickly:
The Seafood Trail Passport is a record of the journey you make across the city in July, following the Tuna Seafood Trail and sampling each venue's limited-edition festival dish. Every venue you visit earns you a stamp that brings you one step closer to the prize draw.
The more venues you visit, the bigger prize draw you unlock.
You can also use the map in this booklet to find participating Newcastle Tuna and Seafood Festival venues throughout July, marking them off as you go.
