Whitstable annual Oyster Festival

Whitstable annual Oyster Festival (c) Whitstable Oyster Festival (p) GoUK.com

The seaside town of Whitstable in south-east England is holding its annual Oyster Festival on 23–29 July this year.

The festival traditionally opens with the Landing of the Oysters ceremony, when oysters are brought ashore and blessed by clergy. This is followed by a costume parade with music that takes the oysters from the harbour to the local inns and restaurants of Whitstable.

It is a modern celebration of a tradition that dates from Norman times, when fishers and dredgers held a thanksgiving for their survival and the oyster harvest. The practical townspeople held the blessing service in the summer because that was the off-season for oysters and their least busy time. (And 25 July is the feast day of St James of Compostela, the patron saint of oysters.)

Today the festival continues with a food fair, and oyster-eating, kite-flying and crabbing competitions. Locals also build ‘grotters’ on the beach. Grotters are hollow mounds of sand or mud decorated with oyster shells and lit at night by candles.

Many thousands of oysters are eaten during the Festival but not all of these are caught locally. The local rock oysters spawn between April and August, which makes them unpalatable. Pacific or European oysters, when growing in the colder waters around Whitstable, do not spawn, so they can be eaten throughout the year.

The Kent seaside town is the only place in the world called Whitstable. It was also the terminus of the world’s first steam-driven passenger rail service, the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway, known affectionately as the ‘Crab and Winkle Line’ .

Whitstable Oyster Festival 23–29 July
Tel: +44 1227 862 066
Website: www.whitstableoysterfestival.com
Twitter: WhitOysterFest
YouTube: whitstable oyster festival