Blessing of the fleet moves to Berwick; registration required to participate in boat parade

For the first time in recent years, the annual Blessing of the Fleet at the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival will be held on the Berwick side of the Atchafalaya River due to ongoing construction to improve Morgan City’s riverfront wharf, according to a festival news release.
The blessing of vessels will take place at 10 a.m. Sept. 6 in Berwick. Vessels participating in the water parade, held in conjunction with the Blessing of the Fleet, are required to register with the festival office.
All vessels are required to fly the registration flag provided by the festival. Awards will be given to first, second and third place in each division. Divisions include shrimp, petroleum and pleasure craft categories.
Anyone interested in registering a vessel to be a part of the Blessing of the Fleet should contact the festival office at 985-385-0703.
Bishop Shelton Fabre of the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese will preside over the Blessing of the Fleet at the Berwick docks.
“We are excited to be able to partner with the Town of Berwick this year, while the city of Morgan City is making substantial improvements to the wharf area,” Festival Director Darby Isham said.
“We are thankful for the hospitality that the Town of Berwick has shown. We are hopeful that festivalgoers will make their way to Berwick to take part in the long-standing tradition of the Blessing of the Fleet.”
Berwick is looking forward to hosting the event, Mayor Louis Ratcliff said.
“We like to help our sister city and also help out the festival in this great celebration that will be on Labor Day Weekend,” Ratcliff said. “We’re looking forward to everybody coming across the river and viewing the blessing on the Berwick side.”
Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi said, “Well in advance, we communicated with the Shrimp Festival that the riverfront would probably be off limits during this year’s festival so we were able to contact the town of Berwick, who graciously offered up their side of the riverfront.”
Morgan City officials recently decided to close floodgates during the festival weekend to help prevent visitors from entering the Morgan City riverfront due to the “dangers and liability” there right now, Grizzaffi said.
“Next year’s festival, we’re going to have the best looking wharf in the festival’s history,” Grizzaffi said. The wharf project is scheduled to be finished in early of 2016.
Also on Sept. 6, Fabre will be the celebrant during the Mass in the Park at 8:30 a.m. in Lawrence Park.
For more information, contact the festival office at 985-385-0703, or visit the festival’s web site at www.shrimp-petrofest.org.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com