RiverCenter Promises Local Flair at Oyster Festival

Nancy Adams said she was on the phone with a meteorologist Friday night and Saturday morning up until the minute she decided to postpone the second annual Red Bank Guinness Oyster Festival.

Though the rains never came, Adams, the executive director of the Red Bank RiverCenter said the oyster festival, now scheduled for this Sunday, will be just as big as planned, but this time, hopefully, with better weather.

Adams also said local businesses are committed to making the festival a success. Oyster fest will feature 25 eateries. Adams said of that total, 23 are restaurants local to Red Bank. The only reason the remaining two come from out of town, she said, was because no one could find a local restaurant capable of shucking the more than 10,000 oysters needed for the event.

Local restaurants are bringing culinary quality to the event and many are producing festival-specific food items.

“It’s much higher fare than your regular carnival food,” she said. “You might not see too many funnel cakes, but you will get lobster rolls.”

The event will be held at the White Street municipal parking lot this Sunday from 12 – 7 p.m. Current weather forecasts call for sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-60s. The oyster festival will also feature live music and two stages on separate ends of the parking lot.

Admission for anyone over 13 is $5. The money raised will help fund the Booker Cancer Center at Riverview and the Cancer Institute of NJ.