Thousands of visitors descended on Mandurah’s city centre and refreshed waterfront spaces at the weekend for the Channel 7 Mandurah Crab Fest, one of the state’s biggest free events.
More than 100,000 people attended the 24th annual Crab Fest on March 15 and 16, enjoying the City of Mandurah’s signature event with entertainment, headline performances by Ricki-Lee Coulter and Rogue Traders, and plenty of delicious food highlighting Mandurah’s celebrated blue swimmer crab.
Mandurah Mayor Caroline Knight said Crab Fest 2025 dished up a huge range of crowd-pleasing attractions which highlighted the Mandurah lifestyle and perfectly showcased the city’s renewed foreshore areas.
“A big congratulations to everyone involved in delivering another hugely successful Channel 7 Mandurah Crab Fest – it was an amazing weekend filled with fun, food and community spirit!” Mayor Knight said.
“Crab Fest is such a key part of Mandurah’s identity. It has important flow-on effects for our community, businesses and our economy, and we are so proud that people embrace Crab Fest and keep coming back year after year.
“In 2024, Crab Fest saw an injection of $15.4million into our local economy and from all accounts this year’s event looks to have been even bigger.
“Thank you to Channel 7 and all our sponsors, partners, local businesses and suppliers for helping make this event possible, plus more than 100 volunteers who gave their time and energy to help bring Crab Fest to life - we could not have done it without you.
“Our city sparkled over the weekend, and we were so proud to have been able to share it with everyone.”
Mandurah’s new and improved Eastern Foreshore spaces provided the perfect backdrop to welcome visitors over Crab Fest weekend, with people enjoying the big grassed areas, pathways, a new playground, seating and shade.
The city’s iconic festival kicked off on Friday, March 14, with two ticketed events showcasing great food, drinks and entertainment on the waterfront.
Free family fun, attractions, close to 20 hours of live music, and food to suit all tastes flowed all weekend. Highlights included celebrity cooking demonstrations on the Spudshed Cooking Stage, live music on the Seaside Estate Music Stage, food stalls, seafood dishes, roving entertainment, and an amazing fireworks display over the Peel Harvey Estuary on Saturday night.
Crowds enjoyed a range of cooking demonstrations by Crab Fest Culinary Ambassador and international chef Kelvin Cheung, Spudshed’s Tony Galati, Mix 94.5’s Pete Curulli, plus Channel 7 celebrities including Home and Away’s Sophie Dillman and Hailey Pinto, My Kitchen Rules contestants, Susannah Carr, Rick Ardon and Sam Jolly from 7News Perth, and Sunrise’s Sally Bowrey and Sarah Di Lorenzo.
Food vendors and local businesses dished up a huge range of seafood, savoury dishes, sweet treats and drinks, plus fresh cooked crabs to eat at the festival or take home to enjoy. The Spudshed Yellow Brick Road was busy all weekend with homegrown products for all to enjoy.
Other highlights included the Alcoa Family Zone and Children’s Stage with great entertainment all weekend, the SciTech activation, and the Mandurah Action Sports Games with wakeboarding, BMX, skateboarding and freestyle motocross competitions.
The Channel 7 Mandurah Crab Fest is delivered by the City of Mandurah and supported by the State Government through Tourism WA’s Regional Events Program.
