Next full scale Oyster Festival – October 16-17, 2021 at St. Mary’s County Fairgrounds
Please contact usoysterfestival@gmail.com for details.

Preserving the Tradition

For 54 years, the Rotary Club of Lexington Park has sponsored the popular National Oyster Festival in St. Mary’s County. As a caring organization, the Club has an abundance of concern for the well-being of Festival goers and volunteers during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, the Club reluctantly concluded that the Oyster Festival cannot and should not be held as a major community event in 2020.

Rather, than hosting large public gatherings on October 17 and 18 this year, the Club will host small, controlled localized events. These events will serve to preserve the U.S. Oyster Cookoff and the U.S. Oyster Shucking Contest. The intent is to continue to honor these long-held traditions. In the best case, If local restrictions on gatherings are safely relaxed, these events will be planned to scale-up as much as is practical.

Otherwise, current planning calls for live streaming or pre-recording these events. This will perhaps involve a wider scope of national cookers and shuckers to create a national virtual celebration of the Oyster in October 2020.

As these plans mature in the coming months, announcements will be posted to https://usoysterfest.com and the Oyster Festival Facebook page.

As is the case for many an event this year, the Rotary Club of Lexington Park is saddened by the loss of your contributions to the many participating charitable organizations. King Oyster assures us all, however, that the U.S. Oyster Festival will fully be back and better than ever in October 2021!

 

Our 2019 Platinum and Gold Sponsors

   

The 2019 U.S. National Oyster Shucking Champion is Honor Allen of Florida. His 2019 shucking time was 1 Minute 59.22 seconds and his final time was 2 minute 20.22 seconds.  Honor will compete in the Galway, Ireland International Oyster Opening Contest for the third time in 2020.
Marty Hyson wins Best Main Dish, the People’s Choice Award and the Grand Prize in the 2019 U.S. Oyster Cookoff with his “Crispy Buffalo Maryland Oysters on Blue Cheese Grits”.. For more 2019 cook-off results CLICK HERE. For the recipe CLICK HERE.

Join us for the United States Oyster Festival on the third weekend in October at the St . Mary’s County Fairgrounds. Your support permits the charitable efforts of many St. Mary’s County organizations.