Great Bay Oyster Festival Event Recap

Event Gallery

We will be posting a gallery of photos from the 2011 Oyster Festival shortly, check back soon

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CCANH’s Great Bay Oyster Festival

Despite driving rain and wind, CCANH’s Great Bay Oyster Festival, held on Sunday, October 2nd, was a great success. The festival required over 6 months of planning, by members of CCANH’s Oyster Shell Recycling Steering Committee working closely with Jim Chase of the Seacoast Science Center, located at Odiorne Point State Park, Rye, NH, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. With the goals of raising community awareness regarding the ecological issues facing Great Bay, raising funds to support restoration and creating a family friendly fun fall event, many area restaurants, businesses and regional conservation organizations rose to the occasion.

One cannot have an oyster festival without oysters, and Seaport Fish, with considerable help from Jumpin’ Jay’s Fish Café and Sander’s Fish Market, along with the Little Bay Oyster Company, the only commercial grower in Great Bay, did not disappoint. Smuttynose Brewery, Squamscott Beverages, Poverty Lane Orchards, and Philbrick’s Fresh Market supplied the liquid refreshments to wash down the oysters, while area restaurants including Robert’s Maine Grill, The Old Salt, Flatbread Pizza, the Roundabout Diner, and Chill Catering, supplied a wide selection of special bite gastronomic delights. Favorite Foods donated the paper products to serve the festival feast. CCANH volunteers worked tirelessly to sort the waste for recycling, including the oyster shell of course.

While all were enjoying the warm atmosphere  and excellent food and drink under the big top, Joyce Andersen, Dan Blakeslee, Earreverance, and Mixed Nutz, provided exciting live music, with Jeff Landrock providing the sound technical support.  The event was also punctuated with live and silent auctions and an oyster shucking contest. Information on everything from Great Bay ecology, ongoing oyster restoration, anadromous fish restoration, legal and legislative issues and even current eco-friendly green technology, was available from the numerous outreach tables spread out throughout the festival.

The event was run completely by volunteer effort, with volunteers showing up in the early morning and staying until late that evening, in the pouring rain and wind, to setup, run the event and cleanup. At the time of this writing, we do not yet know the financial success of the event, but clearly the event was a big hit for all who attended. CCANH would like to thank all of the volunteers and businesses that helped to make this oyster festival possible. We are already planning next year's event!

Oyster Shucking Contest
Participants in the oyster shucking contest prepare for the competition.

 

Contest Winner
Shucking Contest MC, Zack Piper, of Seaport Fish (left) congratulates the contest winner, Adam Alderin, of Jumpin’ Jay’s Fish Café (right)