Credit: Lowcountry Hospitality Association On Sunday, January 29th, the Lowcountry Oyster Festival, the world's largest oyster festival will serve up around 45,000 pounds of oysters and expose its roughly 8,000 annual attendees to the benefits of oyster recycling. Celebrating its 39th year, the event works with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Coastal Conservation Association of Charleston to recycle shells in local coastal waters, where they help rebuild fisheries, reefs, prevent soil erosion, and mitigate flood risk. The festival provides these organizations around 3 percent of the 43,000 bushels of oyster shells needed to reach sustainability goals of reseeding oyster beds and fisheries.
In addition to its contribution to local ecology, nearly all of the oysters in the festival's 800-guest VIP section are sourced from South Carolina oyster farmers through a network managed by the Lowcountry Oyster Co., which operates fisheries on the Ernest F. Hollings ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge. By working a year in advance, local suppliers intend to provide nearly all of the 800 bushels of oysters needed for the VIP section by 2024.
This massive celebration is being held at Boone Hall Plantation and includes oyster shucking and eating contests, local food, wine and beer, and family friendly activities. The festival has also enabled the Charleston Restaurant Foundation to donate over $1 million to local charities.
For more information or to purchase tickets to the festival, click here.