Welcome to the Festival of the Oceans of the Mexican Caribbean®, the Mexican Caribbean’s leading environmental education event, now celebrating its 10º edition. The festival, also known as #FestOceanos is an initiative organized and led by Delphinus in collaboration with NGOs, tourism service providers, universities, academic organizations, government entities and artists that seeks to empower local communities and international visitors with the knowledge to preserve our seas. Through academic talks, artistic exhibitions, gastronomic events, ecological activities and all the other events in the festival visitors learn about the problems that our marine ecosystem face today such as overfishing, climate change, invasive species, and plastic pollution, and what we as individuals and society can do to change this.
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Our History
In 2013, Delphinus, a socially responsible company, is inspired by the World Ocean’s Day to celebrate this festival for the first time. The goal since then has been to provide environmental education about our fascinating marine ecosystems, being able to share with the community the know-how to maintain a healthy, sustainable relationship with our oceans, promoting its conservation and the responsible, sustainable use of their resources. Today, the festival is recognized as the Mexican Caribbean’s main event on conservation and environmental education.
Our goal is to become Latinamerica’s largest ocean-themed festival. We are seeking to instill conscience amongst our communities that inspires them to act for a better future while presenting a favorable image of the Mexican Caribbean to the rest of the world.
The festival has grown throughout its 9 years of iterations into an annual event that brings our community together for a common goal: the care of the Caribbean and the world’s oceans. There is a wide range of events that take place throughout the festival, which lasts 3 to 4 weeks between May and June. These include panel conversations, art exhibitions, and recreational, ecological, gastronomic and academic activities that raise awareness on the environmental services the oceans provide us with and the threats they are facing.
Our Effect in Numbers
Over 9 years of its events the Festival of the Oceans of the Mexican Caribbean has had a measurable, beneficial impact for our area. Beginning with the mobilization of over 1163 volunteers that cleaned 7300 lbs of trash from beaches and mangroves in Contoy Island, Isla Blanca, Cancún and Puerto Morelos. The gastronomical events of the festival have presented over 80 original recipes for eating lionfish created by local gastronomy students, and served over 1300 lbs lionfish meat to the public, promoting the consumption of this invasive species. There have been 5 art exhibitions, displaying 401 photographs, the contests have received drawings from 917 local, national, and since 2019 international kids. 29 academic presentations given by experts in marine conservation, journalism, and environmental activists benefitting 2950 students plus hundreds of online viewers during live broadcasts on social media, plus 5 concerts, 2 murals painted and many more one off events that have attracted over 7000 guests over 9 iterations of the festival.
Awards and Recognitions
The Festival of the Oceans was recognized in 2014 as the Best Public Relations Program by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, IAAPA. That same year, the Secretariat of Tourism of Quintana Roo and the Association of Public Relations of the Mexican Caribbean awarded the Festival of the Oceans, as the "best PR campaign" in the "meetings" category.
In 2016, the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, SEMARNAT (by its Spanish acronym), gave the Festival of the Oceans a "Special Mention" on the 2016 Award for Ecological Merit, after an independent jury of experts judged the nominations.
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In 2017, the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA) named Delpinus’ Festival of the Oceans of the Mexican Caribbean the co-receiver of the "Marine Environment Protection 2017" award in the "Non-Profit Events" category.
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In 2019 Delphinus was recognized as the recipient of the tenth Reef Alliance Award, of the Reef Alliance program, for its conservation efforts, particularly for the 7th Festival of the Oceans.
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In 2020, the 7th Festival of the Oceans of the Mexican Caribbean was recognized as a runner-up on the IV Fundacom Awards in the “Events of over 1,000 people” category. This contest distinguishes excellency and good practices in public relations and organizational communication in Iberoamerica.