New Cooking for Solutions gets more intense and intimate.

Seems folks were getting a little too festive.

So the most progressive food festival on the planet, Cooking for Solutions, sent its gala the way of the sardine canneries.

The Aquarium and its influential Seafood Watch program founded the event to honor responsible chefs and help eaters experience the robust flavors that can come without damaging marine, human and planetary health.

By year 10, last May, organizers were sensing the grandeur of the gala was drifting away from a core message of conservation and consciousness.

“Yes, it’s an amazingly fun party,” spokesperson Ken Peterson told the Weekly when the changes came. “But as much fun as everybody has, in the eating and drinking, the messaging about sustainability is getting lost in ways it’s not with other events.”

So in come more of the increasingly popular, smaller-scale field trips, cooking demos and… dance parties.

Saturday, June 6, the Aquarium goes all underwater nightclub 9pm-midnight. DJ Magic Matt spins a mix of electro, house and dance. The special guest host is Carla Hall, a popular Top Chef alum and current co-host of ABC’s food-centric talk show, The Chew.

Other guest chefs include Estevan Jimenez of Aquaterra Culinary, John Cox of Sierra Mar and Ned Bell of Chefs for Oceans. The evening resembles a club-remix version of the Cooking for Solutions gala at half the price ($75/members, $90/general). Around 50 food and drink stations will appear. Napa Valley wine producer The Hess Collection hosts a wine lounge where they pour samples of their Earth-friendly vintages. Additionally, television chefs Nathan Lyon (ofGrowing a Greener World on PBS and Good Food America with Nathan Lyon on Veria), and Aarti Sequeria (of Aarti Party on Food Network) host a prelude to the party ($125, $100).

These events play into a prodigious Cooking for Solutions World Oceans Weekend. Demos, recipes, activities and crafts for the kids happen throughout the Aquarium Saturday and Sunday (and are included with admission).

Offsite opportunities include Food and Wine Adventures that take small-group excursions to explore sustainable foods in different settings led by a chef ($185, $235). One trek sends guests to make garden-fresh salads with celebrity Chef John Ash at Esalen; another involves a Hawaiian-style whole-pig barbecue and poke party at a Carmel Highlands residence with Sam Choy.

Meanwhile, culinary artisans and chefs offer their insights into food trends, ingredients and favorite foods and wines – including nose-to-tail eating, wild edibles and gnocchi making – for the Talk & Taste Series ($25, $50).

Saturday evening, before the big party, guests can enjoy “Bubbles and Bites on the Bay” at The Intercontinental. Local growers mingle with guests and serve farm-to-fork bites. C Restaurant Exec Chef Matt Bolton conducts a sustainable cooking demo and furnishes delicacies to go with Morro Bay Oysters and artisan cheeses by Schoch Family Farmstead. Domaine Carneros reps even explore the craft of making bubbly ($95, $115). If Bolton’s dinner for the Sustainable Foods Institute – starring duck confit croquettes, little-neck clam chowder, silky Monterey Bay king salmon, foraged morels and manjari mousse – is any indication, guests are in for a thoroughly delicious, and sustainable, treat.

For more on events, tickets and talks, visit www.montereybayaquarium.org/visit/special-events/cooking-for-solutions