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“I just love crustaceans!” one eager hunter declares as they stand shoulder to shoulder with other prawn pursuers passing through Sydney Fish Market on Good Friday morning, the lunch rush not even yet under way.

On the sidelines, there is serious gameplanning happening between couples – how many kilograms of fillets, oysters, scallops and prawns will be needed for entertaining family during the long weekend ahead.

There’s a palpable buzz here – it’s the first celebration since the harbour city’s famous fish market opened the doors of its new upgraded home in January.

Carmelo Lombardo, the retail manager at GetFish, arrived at 2.30am and says trade has been bustling since they opened at 5am.

As for how this first Easter feels in the new facility, compared to the old, Lombardo says: “We’re feeling great about it because the atmosphere and the buzz within the actual building and site is sensational.”

Buddy and Tony, weighed down with multiple cooler bags – “a thousand dollars later” – they said) agree. Tony has been coming to the fish market for Easter since the old site first opened, but now says the new building is “the best thing since sliced cheese”.

“It’s clean, new, bigger, spacious, ample parking space,” he says.

For some, Good Friday is the first time they have seen the new premises. Doing her seafood shopping with her family for the weekend, Sydney mother Zee is hunting down oysters and sashimi, as well as fish for the kids.

They’re one of many families there; another child passing by can be heard asking a parent: “Ooh, can I try that?”

But not everyone is a fan of the change. Angelo Vaxevani from Peter’s Fish Market says his preference was for the old premises, which had “more of a vibe than what we have here today – more of a fish market. This here’s more of a very nice, glorified Westfields.”

Nevertheless, “it’s still good”, Vaxevani says. Easter has seen big crowds since Thursday, he says, with an even bigger “lunch rush” on Friday.

Jesslyn and her partner aren’t taking any fish home, but rode their bikes over to enjoy lunch at the markets on a public holiday.

“There’s a lot more options I feel, it’s definitely more consumer friendly … The other one was more for buying fish to take home,” she says.

“It’s a bit more upmarket and doesn’t smell like fish compared to the old ones,” she says.

Some things never change.

Another shopper can be heard exclaiming “Oh, it stinks!”