My first time at Oysterfest! I purchased tickets from the Whalesbone Oyster House restaurant on…read moreBank Street for $25 each. They included entry into the event, plus one fish burger or four oysters. I thought the price to be a little steep, but since I was a first-timer, I couldn't really judge. In 2013, the event was held on June 30th.
The festival started at noon and went on until about 10pm, though we only stayed for a couple of hours. It wasn't overly busy when we got there around 12:30, but really picked up within the next hour. They had DJs and an oyster shucking contest, and apparently fire breathers later on at night.
I found the location to be a little strange. It's actually outdoors, in the parking lot of the Whalesbone Catering building on Kent Street, which, passing by it a few times seemed incredibly small. I wasn't sure how spacious it would be for a festival, but the parking lot goes around the entire building, so there was more space than I originally thought. We found the entrance and provided our passes, then beelined it to the tables at the back so that we had a place to sit under a large umbrella for some shade. It was a hot day and it was smart to have the umbrellas to encourage festival goers to stay longer. Some people were just sitting around wherever they could find a spot, but don't be surprised if someone asks to share your table.
Four oysters went down in a whole of 17 seconds, so we had to get more - an obvious way for the business to make money, but we expected as much and we didn't mind buying more. I can't remember the exact pricing for the additional oysters, but I do remember not being able to afford a whole lot. You could easily spend hundreds of dollars here, if you wanted. They only serve raw oysters, so don't go looking for any baked or fried ones - in my opinion, if there was ever a place to eat raw oysters, it would be from a reputable business that supplies sustainable fish and seafood. The oyster bar sort of looked like a large wooden plank, with about 3-4 people behind it shucking fresh oysters. They were shucking pretty quickly, which I appreciated, since I didn't have to wait for very long, but I did get a few shells slurping them oysters down. They had a few different accompaniments on the table, including original and smoked Tabasco, I think some other type of habanero hot sauce (with mango flavor? seemed sort of tropical fruit-flavored), mignonette, lemon, and my favorite, freshly grated REAL horseradish. The fresh horseradish was impressive, I must say. The oysters were delicious, as expected.
We also decided to try the fish burger, which was fried quite nicely. There was a gigantic piece of lettuce on mine with an even bigger bun, so it was a little difficult to eat. The fish itself was good, but I'd opt for the oysters if you had to pick one. Besides, it IS called OYSTERfest! Washed it down with a pitcher of sangria, also not the best I've had, but very refreshing. Alcohol was being sold at this sort of food truck looking thing, across from the oyster bar.
We were surprised with the DJ - whoever was playing at that time was pretty good! Couldn't tell you the songs, because I wasn't paying much attention to that, but it wasn't too loud and was pretty chill, sort of like lounge music, so it was nice to have something playing in the background while you still had conversations with the people you came with. If it wasn't for the price, I wouldn't hesitate to attend again, but if you're into oysters, you should definitely go at least once!