Celebrate seaweed with friends, family, and farmers! This day-long event will offer public seaweed demos, films, art, interactive tables, and a marketplace. Free, for all ages.

Spring is seaweed season in Maine! Join us Saturday, April 20th from 11am to 4pm for Seaweed Saturday at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland. The event is part of Maine Seaweed Week, an annual food and drink festival that celebrates Maine’s kelp harvest by featuring seaweed on menus at over 70 restaurants, breweries, and businesses across the state. Activities at Seaweed Saturday will highlight seaweed in art, food, and science, featuring dozens of local seaweed farms, businesses, and organizations.

The Cohen Center will host film screenings throughout the day featuring seaweed stories, science and farmers (supported by the Maine Outdoor Film Festival). Maine Sea Grant will offer hands-on seaweed identification workshops and demos. Local artists will exhibit their seaweed-inspired works. In the marketplace, seaweed farms and businesses will showcase their seaweed products to taste or take home. The event is free to attend and open to the public.

Maine is the national leader in seaweed farming and harvest, with over 40 kelp farms along the coast, dozens of seaweed businesses, and a growing number of innovative seaweed-based products. This climate-friendly crop benefits people and the planet by supporting coastal communities and healthy oceans. That's a reason to celebrate!

More information about the event schedule and vendors will be available in the coming weeks.

Seaweed Saturday is hosted by Maine Seaweed Week at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and made possible by partners including the Maine Outdoor Film Festival, Maine Sea Grant, Heritage Seaweed, and the World Wildlife Fund.

Register for the Film Screenings:

Inside GMRI’s Cohen Center on Seaweed Saturday, two programs of short films will rotate throughout the day. Each program block of short films is unique to the other and will feature fun and educational short films about seaweed, seaweed farmers and seaweed science.
Screenings are free, but pre-registration is requested as space in the Cohen Center is limited.
Register here for a film screening.