Cold weather adds to magic of 4th annual Oyster Festival
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
The weather was cold, but that did not stop thousands of oyster-craving people from descending on downtown Beaufort over the weekend for Beaufort’s Fourth Annual Oyster Festival.
Ashlee Houck, President and CEO of the Beaufort Area Hospitality Association (BAHA), said that while they were originally concerned about the projected cold temperatures in Beaufort over the weekend, they had more people attend the festival than ever before.
“It’s just part of the ambiance of what an oyster roast is,” Houck said about the cold weather. “Just like with Christmas you want snow, with an oyster roast you want a little bit of a chill in the air.”
Houck said that she estimates that during the two-day festival more than 6,000 people attended and consumed around 270 bushels of oysters.
The festival, which was started in 2021, has managed to grow its attendance from 250 people to thousands in four years, according to Houck, and they hope to continue to grow the festival each year and turn it into an event that pulls in tourism to the city of Beaufort during a time of year when there is a lull in tourism.
“We want to really showcase oysters,” said Houck. “Our culinary heritage, our culture, and make it somewhat of a national event to encourage people to come to Beaufort in January.”
Sea Eagle Market and Sutton Construction were both serving roasted and steamed oysters and several local vendors came out and served their own oyster dishes.
This year, the list of vendors grew from five to eight, offering a wide range of culinary options for oyster lovers and those who are not fans of the mollusk.
Something that Houck said the Oyster Festival prides itself on is that the food and drinks are all local.
The festival only allows oysters harvested south of Charleston and north of Hilton Head Island, according to Houck.
Again, this year, the BAHA set up a trailer to collect empty oyster shells to keep them out of the trash and landfills.
“Not a single oyster shell was thrown away,” Houck said. “We use those to rebuild reefs as well as the living shore structure.”
BAHA partnered with the Outside Foundation to use their trailer to collect oyster shells.
Houck said they filled the trailer twice, which is equal to roughly four tons of oyster shells, according to Jean Fruh with the Outside Foundation.
The shells will be split equally between Sea Eagle Market, who uses the shells to replenish their oyster beds in the spring, and Outside Foundation, who bags the oysters to create living shores and replenishes oyster reefs in the spring when the oysters are spawning.
This year, in addition to the music and food offered at the festival, the festival featured the beginning of an art instillation that will eventually be seen around Beaufort.
Waterman’s Wave Lowcountry Boot Trail is an upcoming art instillation, according to Houck.
These large boots, 12 pairs in all, are to be painted by local artists to celebrate the “history and culture of the watermen in the Lowcountry region.”
This art instillation will be installed periodically throughout the year as the boots are completed.
Delayna Earley formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
