29th Annual Oyster Festival Packs Arcata Plaza

Link

Embed

Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed.

ARCATA (KIEM) – Calling all oysters lovers!

People packed the Arcata Plaza, all to celebrate their love of oysters.

“It’s a celebration of local oyster farming and aqua-culture, and it’s a celebration of local food vendors,” said Arcata Main Street President Victoria Joyce.

Seafood enthusiasts came out to try all the food each vendor had to offer. And some were not fans of this salty shellfish. But after having their first bite, their minds were changed.

“Now that I’m actually here and I had oysters for the first time last year, I’m like oh my gosh these are so good, we need to go to Oyster Fest,” said HSU student Citlalin Colon. “Every time I walk around the stalls my mouth is just watering.”

There was even an oyster call out contest of who had the best impression of this shellfish.

Over the last few days, the oyster festival went through a lot of up’s and downs, from a bacteria scare, to a health ban, and to having that restriction lifted Friday morning.

“As soon as they found that the ban was lifted, they were out of the bay harvesting for all our local oysters vendors, and we have over thirty oyster vendors,” said Joyce.

With all the longs line, the vendors were cooking up a storm. Feeding the hungry crowd.

“We have a lot of fun, it’s a lot of work,” said Keoki Burbank, Head Football of McKinleyville High School.  “It’s good team camaraderie and you kind of have to be working together to be pumping oysters quick because there’s a lot of hungry people here ready to eat,”

But despite all the challenges and with Father’s Day right around the corner, the Oyster Festival brought people together.

“It’s just been great having family here and it’s actually brought me back to the area a lot more over the last year than I have the last twenty-five,” said Martin Colon.