Festival celebrates 100 years of Star Fish Co.

BY LESLIE LAKE SUN CORRESPONDENT | llake@amisun.com

CORTEZ - The 41st Annual Cortez Commercial Fishing Festival is just around the corner.

The Feb. 18-19 festival, described by organizers as a “party with a purpose,” is organized by a volunteer committee of the non-profit Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH). The festival features seafood, live music, arts and crafts, environmental exhibits and children’s activities.

“The money raised at the festival will support the continued restoration of the FISH Preserve,” FISH board member Jane von Hahmann said. “The funds will also go towards a small mortgage we have on two lots in the middle of the preserve, as well as maintaining two historical properties owned by FISH - the volunteer firehouse and the old Church of Christ which is now Fisherman’s Hall.”

The FISH Preserve covers over 95 acres of environmentally sensitive land immediately east of the village and is being restored by FISH. It is the last stretch of undeveloped waterfront property left on North Sarasota Bay.

Festival Theme

This year’s festival theme is “Cortez Kind - 100 Years of Commercial Fishing.”

“The theme is open to interpretation,” von Hahmann said. “When Karen (Bell) suggested it, she was referring to the kindness in the village - neighbor helping neighbor.”

Bell said the theme is meant to be thought provoking.

“My idea is that right now the world is an uneasy place,” Bell said. “Cortez is a unique community because of the kind of people who live here.”

FISH member and UF/IFAS Sea

Grant director Dr. Angela Collins provided her take on this year’s theme.

“I like to think of the Cortez kind as “one of a kind,” because there truly is no other place like this on Earth,” Collins wrote in a prepared statement.

The “100 years” refers to the centennial anniversary of the Star Fish Co.

In honor of that anniversary, the 2023 festival is moving back to its original location on the west end of the village, and will be directly in front of A.P. Bell Fish Co. and Star Fish Co.

“The first building for Star Fish Co. built here in 1923, on land purchased from Alvah Taylor,” according to the book “Cortez Then and Now,” written by Dr. Mary Fulford Green and Linda Molto. “Mr. A.D. Millis, a fisherman who decided to open a dealership after the ’21 Hurricane, built this dock.”

Millis operated the business until his death in 1959 when it was acquired by his nephew Gaylord Garner, who developed the retail business. After his death in 1986, it was taken over by his son Allen and the building was sold in 1996 to its current owner, Karen Bell.

Von Hahmann said the last time the festival was held on the west end of the village was 2010. “In 2011 it was moved back to the east end,” she said.

The first festival in 1981 drew 500 people. Since then, the festival has grown from a one-day event to two days with an average total attendance upwards of 15,000 people.

“Soak in the sunshine along Sarasota Bay while you boogie to live local music, peruse aisles of original artwork and nautical crafts, sip cold beverages and sample some really tasty seafood,” Collins wrote. “Buy a raffle ticket to be entered to win one of the beautiful, refurbished custom boats lovingly restored by the FISH boatworks. Get up close and personal with local marine life and feed your science side during “Dock Talks.”

New this year will be a fishingthemed fashion show.

“It will be guys and girls - mostly guys who fish - donning the gear they fish in,” von Hahmann said.

“The fashion show is going to be cute,” Bell said. “It will be local fishermen and kids modeling slickers and life jackets and fishing bibs.”

Also new this year is an expanded Minnow Zone for kids.

“We’re going to have the ponies and things we’ve had in the past, but this year we’re adding a shark tooth dig, sand dollar and starfish painting, a maze with nets and an oyster sack race,” Bell said.

FISH has joined forces with the Artists’ Guild of Anna Maria Island (AGAMI), to host a photography show during this year’s festival. Photographers are encouraged to submit their work under the following guidelines:

1. Subject: Cortez! Of course! Photographers are asked to share their images of Cortez village and its very unique commercial fishing industry.

2. Categories: Submissions will be accepted from a. Minnows - 8th grade