Wellfleet OysterFest is back and better than ever! This year, the festival will resume in downtown Wellfleet. Buckle up and get ready for the best weekend of the year!
Wellfleet OysterFest is a wonderful, small town event where the entirety of Wellfleet is overtaken with oyster lovers from around the world, coming together to celebrate the importance of the sweet, savory species. The festival highlights the shucking contest, but includes lots of food and vendors selling homemade chocolate, jewelry, art, and more. There are educational booths, informational demonstrations, and live music.
When is Wellfleet OysterFest?
The 2023 OysterFest will be held October 14th - 15th in downtown Wellfleet. In the weeks leading up to the main event, there will be a sprinkling of fun-filled activities to get you in the festival spirit! Just a few of these activities include farm tours, a 5k road race, and so much more!
Where to Stay for Wellfleet OysterFest
If you're looking to make a long weekend out and attend Wellfleet OysterFest, a great option is to find a vacation rental on the Outer Cape. Whether you want to make a day-trip to attend the festival or find a rental within walking distance of downtown, there are plenty of options allowing for short-term stays during the fall. Check out these Wellfleet vacation rentals available for OysterFest.
About Wellfleet Oysters
The town of Wellfleet leases roughly 200 acres of tidal estuaries in and around
Wellfleet Harbor to local commercial fishermen for the purpose of farming shellfish.
In recent years, these pristine waters have produced an annual commercial harvest
of an estimated 850,000 large choice oysters. This relatively limited availability
combined with their exceptional quality has made the Wellfleet oyster one of the
most highly sought after and recognizable varieties of oyster anywhere in the world.
What makes the Wellfleet oyster’s quality so superior? It’s the water. The waters
that flush through Cape Cod Bay are provided courtesy of the Gulf of Maine. By the
time the waters wash over the inner Cape they are relatively warm (by Gulf of Maine
standards). The phytoplankton rich Gulf of Maine waters provide the Wellfleet oysters
everything they need to grow quite rapidly and produce an oyster of exceptional
quality.
Wellfleet’s oyster industry is also historic. In the late 1700s and early 1800s,
the Wellfleet oyster beds were decimated by a combination of plague and overfishing.
In an effort to remedy this situation, forward thinking locals obtained a small
quantity of oysters from the Chesapeake Bay area and placed them in Wellfleet Harbor
as seed stock. As anticipated, the oysters once again flourished and thus the reintroduction
of the Wellfleet oyster -- and the birth of aquaculture in North America!