Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass and Coastal Arts Festival

The annual Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival hosts 80+ sea glass and coastal artists and almost 6,000 festival-goers from all along the East Coast. This event includes live music, delicious food, and a great lineup of experts sharing their knowledge through the lecture series. The festival is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 3, and Sunday, June 4, 2023.

Collections

The Lewes Historical Society invites individuals and enthusiasts who have collections of one-of-a-kind sea glass shards to participate in the festival. There is no charge to exhibit a collection however you must be pre-registered and cannot sell to attendees during the festival. Private collections do not have to be from the Lewes area, in fact, the Society would like to include unique and diverse exhibits from the Delmarva region. To pre-register your collection as an exhibitor at the Lewes Historical Society’s Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass and Coastal Arts Festival please email nlamotte@historiclewes.org by April 30, 2023.

Vendors

Vendor Applications are currently being accepted for the 2023 Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival until March 15. The selection of vendors will be juried. Artificial sea glass will not be allowed at the event.

Lectures

The 2023 Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival has expanded and will include a lecture series, children’s educational area, maritime interpreters in historic attire, the Sussex Tavern, additional food, and art vendors as well as a variety of antique glass and sea glass collectors. The two-day event lecture series will range in subjects from sea glass to local shipwrecks and coastal conservation. Eastern Shore native, Richard LaMotte, the author of the award-winning book Pure Sea Glass will be holding an audience on Saturday morning. Angie Barker, curator of the Delaware Technical College’s exhibition Treasures of the Sea, will speak both days on the famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher’s search for the historic 1622 shipwreck of the Atocha. 

Learn more on the Lewes Historical Society website.

The festival location features expansive views of Delaware Bay, including the ferries, lighthouses, and sail boats cruising the waters inside Delaware Breakwater. The quaint waterfront town of Lewes, Delaware, is walkable and full of shops, restaurants, and the Zwaanendael Museum, a showcase for the Lewes area. The festival is near the ferry station, so you can day trip into Victorian Cape May, New Jersey.