Kelpfest

The first North Coast KelpFest! was held from mid-May to mid-June 2024, bringing art, science, food and film together to celebrate kelp forests on California’s north coast. This series of events, held over 5 weekends, were part of a broader ocean literacy campaign to raise awareness about the decline of kelp forests on California’s North Coast and to support the kelp recovery work underway at Big River, led by the Nature Conservancy with support from the Ocean Protection Council and California Sea Grant.

The second annual KelpFest! 2025 took place over 5 days, October 3-6, 2025. Shifting the events to the fall aligned with the end of the annual growing cycle of bull kelp and allowed the Big River Kelp Recovery Project team to complete another season of work and share their two-year restoration successes at KelpFest! Marianna Leuschel and Josie Iselin, Co-Directors of Above/Below and science communication/community engagement partners on the Big River team, led a Steering Committee with representatives from 10 community organizations in a highly collaborative planning process to host KelpFest! the first two years.

In early 2026, KelpFest! was reformed to become its own entity, with the Arts Council of Mendocino County as its fiscal sponsor and with support from Pacific Coast Ocean Restoration (PCOR) Initiative. The Steering Committee is co-chaired this year by Lia Morsell, with plans to further integrate the festival into the community and scale the events and programs to bring even more visitors to the Mendocino Coast to learn about and celebrate the oceans. Mark your calendars! The third annual North Coast KelpFest! is scheduled on the low tide weekend of October 9–12, 2026, in Mendocino and Fort Bragg. A schedule with event details will be available in August of this year.