Guinness Oyster Festival a Success Despite Hiccups

With Red Bank Guinness Oyster Festival now just a pleasant memory, it’s time to get to work identifying what worked, what didn’t, and how what is fast becoming an event worth of marking your calendar for can be made all the better next time around.

In just its second year, the oyster festival attracted an estimated 10,000 visitors, Executive Director Nancy Adams said, this despite having to be rescheduled for a week later for reports of poor weather.

With a focus on delivering a more , the event saw two active music stages with bands performing simultaneously as well as more than two-dozen local food vendors with menu favorites and festival-specific eats. Adams said in planning the event for its second year that tweaks were made to the system for picking up beer. Eligible adults were tagged coming through the gate rather than having to show their IDs in line, saving valuable beer purchasing and consumption time.

But not all sits well with Adams, who said there are still some changes that need to be enacted the next time oyster fest rolls around – and yes it’s coming back for a third straight year with a tentative date of the fourth Sunday in September having been set. Visitors were asked to pay a nominal $5 entrance fee, but some, in what Adams called more than an isolated incident, chose to circumvent the fee by sneaking in to the event.

Proceeds from the gate are being given to cancer charities, including one that benefits children.

“We need a little more security, probably,” Adams said, noting that it wouldn’t be for troublemakers, necessarily, but to make sure all of the events visitors paid their way in. “We think (people sneaking in) might have been a bigger problem than we thought. It’s a big parking lot. We had upwards of 100 volunteers working that day, but it might not have been enough.

“We tweaked things from last year and we’ll tweak things for next year.”

In all, Adams said, oyster fest was a positive event for RiverCenter and the associated charities who raised money, as well as its sponsors, , and, most importantly, the visitors who enjoyed their time knocking back oysters and porters in equal measure.

“The fact that we spotlight our restaurants is not something you get everywhere. This wasn’t a place to find carnival food,” she said. “I think it was a great event and I wish I could have just attended without having to work it.”