Sea glass and coastal arts festival to shimmer June 3-4 in Lewes

The Lewes Historical Society will host an exciting lineup of vendors, entertainment and activities for the Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival to be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, June 3 and 4. In addition to the grounds of the LHS historic Shipcarpenter Street Campus in Lewes, the 2023 festival venue will expand to incorporate the society’s United States Life Saving Station Boat House (c. 1884) in Canalfront Park.

The event will include close to 70 sea glass and ocean-inspired arts, a lecture series, a children’s educational area, maritime interpreters in historical attire, a raffle, food, sea glass shard identification experts, and a variety of antique glass and sea glass collections.

Richard LaMotte, author of “Pure Sea Glass,” will be on site Saturday morning to talk about the secrets of sea glass identification. LaMotte, who has been speaking about sea glass for almost 20 years, has spent many hours hunting for sea glass along the shoreline in Lewes.

Angie Barker, curator of the Delaware Technical Community College’s Georgetown exhibition Treasures of the Sea, will speak both days on the search by famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher for the historic 1622 shipwreck of the Atocha. 

Also on the agenda is Baltimore native Stu Jacobs, who with his daughter Emily has amassed an impressive collection of thousands of pieces of sea glass, some of which will be on display. Jacobs will speak on the history of his collection, with the topic Sea Glass Collecting: Taking It to the Next Level.

Joining the lineup is John Keith Fleming, a local resident and expert on early American bottles and glass. Fleming, who has spent hundreds of hours digging bottles and artifacts in Delaware, will present What You Need to Know to Identify the Origin of Your Sea Glass. Fleming and fellow bottle expert Peter Beaman, both members of the Delmarva Antique Bottle Club, encourage attendees to bring favorite pieces of sea glass to the event, where they will be identifying shards throughout the weekend.

Sea glass and ocean artisans will be on both campuses highlighting and selling their distinctive art. The Delmarva Antique Bottle Club will have a comprehensive exhibit matching old glassware to shards of sea glass. Club members will have vintage bottles for reference and sale. Private sea glass collections will also be on display, along with fun games and activities for children, including a scavenger hunt.

Musical entertainers include The Stimms, The Jazzmen, Matt Lafferty & the Pros from Dover, singer Mary Roth and the Chanty Band. Food will be provided by local civic organizations as well as Fat Vinny’s Food Truck and Sabor Latino on Saturday, with Taco Reho on Sunday.

Admission to the two-day festival is $10, with children 12 and under attending free. All LHS main campus museums will be open along with the Sussex Tavern in the Rabbits Ferry House. Proceeds benefit the educational and preservation programs of the Lewes Historical Society. This event is sponsored by The Lee Ann Wilkinson Group.

To preorder entry tickets and avoid standing in line, go to historiclewes.org. For more information, find the event on Facebook.