Conch Cracking 101: A Hands-On Culinary Adventure in the Bahamas
The McLean’s Town Conch Cracking Festival, held each October on the eastern tip of Grand Bahama, is less a spectator event and more a hands-on invitation to learn a skill that defines Bahamian coastal life. For over fifty years, locals and visitors have gathered here to compete in extracting conch from its shell — a tradition that started in 1972 with a teacher from England named Jeffrey David Morgan. The festival draws hundreds of people to a settlement about 90 minutes by car from Freeport, where the main event is a timed competition to see who can clean a