Hooked on Newcastle: The Tuna Festival Returns

Credit: Newy Digital

Newcastle is a coastal city built on the ocean, shaping the skyline, the lifestyle and, increasingly, the plate.

This winter, that connection is being celebrated on a city-wide scale with the return of the Newcastle Tuna and Seafood Festival. Following a sold-out debut in 2025, the festival returns in 2026 with an expanded month-long program running throughout July, transforming the city into a living Seafood Trail.

Launching on Sunday 28 June, around 30 participating venues across Newcastle will each create a signature tuna or seafood dish, inviting locals and visitors to eat their way through the city while discovering the chefs, restaurants and flavours shaping its coastal dining identity.

From waterfront dining rooms to neighbourhood favourites, the trail encourages diners to follow their appetite across Newcastle one plate at a time.

Presented by Namba Group and several local sponsors, the festival continues to evolve from a single showcase event into a broader celebration of seafood, seasonality and the city’s hospitality community.

For founder and Nagisa owner Taiyo Namba, the idea began with a simple question rooted in place.

“We’re a coastal city, and seafood should be a bigger part of how we express who we are,” he says. “We all love seafood in summer - prawns, oysters, eating by the water - but I’ve always believed winter is actually where seafood can really shine.”

Credit: Newy Digital

That thinking led to the inaugural festival in 2025, which opened with a dramatic live cutting of an 80kg Southern Bluefin Tuna by Japanese master chef Koji Harada at Nagisa. “The tuna cutting really showed people that food can be an experience. There’s precision, skill and respect involved. In Japan, that relationship between chef and ingredient is incredibly important.”

Chef Koji’s involvement came through a chance connection via a mutual friend, chef Mark Rusev, who encouraged Taiyo to visit Koji’s restaurant, Tai no Yume, in Fukusaki, Japan.

“Mark told me I had to go,” Taiyo laughs. “He said there was this ramen restaurant operating at an almost Michelin level.”

After experiencing Koji’s cooking firsthand, the partnership quickly followed.

“I told him about the festival and that I was looking for someone to lead a proper tunacutting experience. Then he told me about his background at Nobu in Perth and his experience running tuna-cutting events. At that point it felt like the deal was done.”

Chef Koji will return for the 2026 Grand Opening on Sunday, 28 June, once again cutting a whole 80kg Southern Bluefin Tuna to officially launch the festival.

While tuna remains the symbolic centrepiece, this year’s program expands into a broader celebration of Newcastle’s seafood culture.

The Newcastle Seafood Trail will run throughout July, with around 30 venues each presenting a signature Chef’s Catch dish, alongside a series of seafood-focused dinners and special events across the city.

For Taiyo, the expansion reflects both ambition and philosophy, particularly the Japanese concept of shun, or eating ingredients at their seasonal peak.

“A lot of Australians think seafood is all about summer,” he says. “But in Japan, winter is actually considered one of the best times to eat seafood.”

He says the colder months produce fish with richer flavour and higher fat content.

“The ocean doesn’t stop because the weather gets colder. Winter seafood can be incredible. When people taste seafood at its absolute best, something clicks.”

That shift in perspective is central to the festival, reframing how the city thinks about food and seasonality.

From the outset, Taiyo says the hospitality industry's response confirmed that the idea had struck a chord.

“The biggest lesson from 2025 was realising Newcastle was ready. The support from restaurants, venues, hotels and the wider hospitality community has been amazing.

“It’s not one restaurant trying to do something on its own. It’s the whole city coming together. Everyone can see the potential for Newcastle to have something that people look forward to every year.”

Long term, the ambition extends well beyond seafood.

Taiyo hopes the Newcastle Tuna Festival will grow into a nationally significant cultural event, one that reflects the city's full creative identity.

“Food will always be at the heart of it. But Newcastle already has incredible artists, musicians and creative spaces. We want the festival to grow with all of that.”

With the new art gallery adding further momentum to the city’s cultural landscape, he sees an opportunity for the festival to become more than just a food trail.

“Within four years, we’d love this to become a signature event for Newcastle,” he says.

“Something locals are proud of, and visitors travel for.”

For now, the focus remains on July - on seafood, on seasonality, and on the simple idea of exploring a city through its restaurants. As the trail launches once again, Newcastle’s coastline will quite literally come to the table.

Visit www.newcastletunafest.com.au for more information.