Havre de Grace Seafood Festival Cancels Concert

HAVRE DE GRACE, MD — The Havre de Grace Seafood Festival is not having a concert this year, organizers announced this week.

The festival usually draws thousands of people to Tydings Park the second week in August for food and entertainment. The event is free except for a national musical act that is the only ticketed part of the weekend.

“We had Charlie Daniels, Three Dog Night, Marshall Tucker Band, Bad Company, Ronnie Milsap, Oak Ridge Boys—and those are just in the past few years,” organizers said on the Havre de Grace Seafood Festival Facebook page.

The festival has been going on for 31 years, and each winter the organizers create suspense before announcing who will be this year’s performer.

“Now is the time [of] year when we get to announce the next big act that will preform in Havre de Grace in August. And this year’s concert at the Havre de Grace Seafood Festival is—CANCELLED!” organizers announced.

The explanation was this: “Members of the Havre de Grace City Council have denied our request to have the concert in August.”

The seafood festival’s application was voted down 5-1 by the council on Dec. 21, 2015, Mayor Bill Martin said.

The City Council was originally set to vote on the festival’s application to use Tydings Park—a city-owned property—at its meeting on Oct. 5, 2015, but none of the council members would vote, and a public hearing got heated when citizens voiced concerns about the festival’s ties to Charles Maslin and the event’s affiliation with the city.

Maslin resigned from his post on the board of the seafood festival effective December 2015, citing the growth of his business, Laughing Crab Catering.

“August is a big month for festivals around the country. I will be working another event the second weekend of August this year,” Maslin said in his letter of resignation, dated Dec. 2, 2015. “I will personally be out of town during the actual days of the 2016 Havre de Grace Seafood Festival with one of our crab cake units. Since I will not be attending your event, I feel that i can no longer fulfill my obligations as a member of the board of directors of the Havre de Grace Seafood Festival. I am resigning as a board member immediately.”

Lori Maslin, his wife and the president of the Seafood Festival, included the letter in a revised application for the event, dated Dec. 3, 2015. It is not clear whether that application has been considered by the council in a public forum.

When Patch asked whether the seafood festival would happen at all in 2016, Maslin said in an email: “I am out of town.”

Pictured, Havre de Grace Seafood Festival at Tydings Park. Photo Credit: Ed Rybczynski.

See Also:

• Havre de Grace Seafood Festival Amplifies Entertainment Offerings
• Laughing Crab Food Truck Wins at Tri-City Competition