Galway International Oyster Seafood Festival

What: The world’s great­est and longest run­ning Oys­ter fes­ti­val – the three day long Gal­way Inter­na­tion­al Oys­ter Seafood fes­ti­val cel­e­brate the start of the new Oys­ter sea­son and every­thing that’s great about Oys­ters With a seafood trail, oys­ter Olympics, tast­ing events, best dressed com­pe­ti­tion and mas­quer­ade ball, with the oys­ters being washed down with stout, cham­pagne and of course Guin­ness.

Offi­cial­ly Ireland’s old­est fes­ti­val, the cel­e­bra­tions also fea­ture the infa­mous Oys­ter Trail – in which the thou­sands of atten­dees cel­e­brate oys­ters by vis­it­ing each of the thir­ty pubs along the cities har­bour to sam­ple Oys­ters and Guin­ness – before the main attrac­tions of the fes­ti­vals, the  oys­ter themed pro­ces­sion led by march­ing bands and the World Oys­ter cham­pi­onships – in which the best Oys­ter chefs from around the world gath­er to show off their Oys­ter cook­ing, cut­ting and oys­ter open­ing skills –con­clude the fes­ti­val, which promis­es to bring even the most fer­vent fes­ti­val goer out of their shell.

When: The fes­ti­val takes place over the course of a long week­end on Fri­day – Sun­day and is always held on the last week­end of Sep­tem­ber – although you can expect the hang­over to car­ry on into the Mon­day…

Where: The inter­na­tion­al oys­ter fes­ti­val takes place on the Nim­mo Pier in Gal­way in Ire­land – with the sur­round­ing pubs, venues and restau­rants mak­ing up the oys­ter trail.

Tick­ets: Tick­ets are split into vary­ing events – there is no cost to walk along the oys­ter trail, but can of course expect to pay for your oys­ters and Guin­ness in each pub with the Guin­ness prices start­ing at €5 – and tick­ets onto the pier begin­ning from €10.

For the open­ing night and the all impor­tant oys­ter cham­pi­onship tick­ets nor­mal­ly begin at €35 – although prices do tend to vary and tick­ets can be pur­chased in advance from [https://milestoneinventive.com/store/] – although the tick­ets do include a plate of Oys­ters and a free glass of cham­pagne or Guin­ness.

Dura­tion: The fes­ti­val lasts three days – with the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny begin­ning in the evening with an oys­ter appre­ci­a­tion night. You can expect the pubs on the oys­ter trail to open from 10am over the three days of the fes­ti­val – and entry on to the pier is avail­able from the same time – although it’s rec­om­mend­ed to go in lat­er after­noon for a bet­ter atmos­phere and be present on the Sat­ur­day evening Oys­ter parade.

For the finale and the World Oys­ter Cham­pi­onships – you can expect pro­ceed­ings to being in late after­noon on the Sun­day and last until the late evening, with each con­tes­tant rep­re­sent­ing their coun­try being giv­en 30 oys­ters, and amidst a crowd feast­ing on oys­ters and Guin­ness, giv­en the call ‘one, two, shuck’ and chal­lenged to present the clean­est, speed­i­est and purest Oys­ter in order to be crowned the World Oys­ter Cham­pi­on – no points for guess­ing what the win­ner takes home.

Need to Know: You can expect accom­mo­da­tion and book­ings in the oys­ter cen­tric Miche­lin star restau­rants in Gal­way to book up well in advance, also the fes­ti­val is not rec­om­mend­ed for peo­ple with seafood aller­gies.

More Infor­ma­tion: for fur­ther infor­ma­tion about the fes­ti­val sched­ule, the route of the Oys­ter trail and the com­peti­tors in the Oys­ter World Cham­pi­onships vis­it the offi­cial Gal­way Oys­ter Inter­na­tion­al web­site at: [https://www.galwayoysterfestival.com/]