Falmouth Oyster Festival opens today

The festival runs from October 16 to 19 at Events Square in Falmouth and has a packed programme of cookery demonstrations with leading local chefs, oysters, seafood, wine and ale bars, live music, sea shanties, children’s shell painting, town parade, working boat race and marquees brimming with Cornish produce and crafts.

The Festival has become a major visitor attraction celebrating the working of one of the last remaining traditional oyster fisheries still dredging under sail and oar.

Each year the Festival brings aficionados of the delicacy out in large numbers and others not so sure about oysters being tempted to try the aphrodisiac for the first time. The Festival has steadily grown in popularity and size each year, with 27,000 visitors in 2007.

Evening entertainment is provided on Friday with a re-match of the head to head chefs competition - the Hot Chefs Challenge between Arty Williams from The Cove in Falmouth and Nick Hodges from Lusty Glaze in Newquay. Contestants to partner the chefs have been chosen through a competition in Inside Cornwall magazine. The evening will follow the recognised format with the audience voting for their favourite chefs dishes. Saturday evening will welcome The Pearl of Africa Children’s Choir on their fundraising tour, hot foot from the Royal Festival Hall on Friday night.

The entertainment continues with an evening with Pete Goss and crew, talking about his current project – the Spirit of Mystery – an epic sailing voyage to Australia recreating the maiden voyage of the Cornish crew of the original Mystery. A raffle will be held each evening to support the evening entertainment, with both evenings featuring live music until late - with The Noisy Boys on Friday, and The Shed on Saturday.

“Entrance throughout the festival is free, apart from the Opening Ceremony” said Sian Robbins, Carrick’ s Events Officer “We are looking forward to another record breaking festival – with a larger seating area for visitors - what better way to take in the atmosphere and enjoy the cookery demonstrations, lap up the live music or to sample oysters from the Truro Oyster Fishery with Skinners ale or wine from Walter Hicks Wines?”

The Grand Oyster Parade will be on Friday October 17, leaving The Moor at 12 o’clock, through the town centre, to the festival marquee on Events Square. Falmouth School Samba Band will lead the parade, and their Jazz Orchestra will play on The Moor to entertain the crowds. There will also be market stalls on The Moor throughout the Oyster Festival. Every school in Falmouth is taking part in the parade with the theme of tall ships – with each school flying their colours in flags on the masts of their ‘ship’.

Shops and restaurants in the town will be competing in the window competition, look out for some imaginative and impressive displays! The festival will feature a range of stands all promoting the very best of Cornish produce from tempting food, drink and craft items, from smoked meat, fish and cheeses: soups, curries and chocolates; cider and Cornish Sea Salt to jewellery, fine art, clothing and artisan cookware - stock up with unusual gifts for Christmas.

Orca Sea Safaris will be offering trips to see the oyster fishermen at work on Thursday and Friday afternoon, in addition to their wildlife sea safaris in the mornings. Activities on the water continue with the Working Boat Race in the inner harbour on Sunday morning – a chance for those working the oyster fishery to race their graceful craft for the coveted Falmouth Oyster Festival trophies – which bear an oyster ring – a gauge used to size the oysters once dredged.

Live music will feature every day from Celtic melodies with Dalla or the Tinners, to Black Rock Jazz and The Barvecs, with the unmissable Cornish Wurzels and Falmouth Shout shanty singers bringing the festival to a close on Sunday afternoon.

The Falmouth oyster festival will see an innovative twist to the normal school meal deal coming to Marlborough School, Falmouth, when it opens on Thursday.

The pilot project links the annual Falmouth Oyster Festival with local chefs showing how food producers can make an impact on the healthy eating agenda.

Project co-ordinator John Frankland hopes projects like this could become an integral part of Falmouth Oyster Festival in future years.

“It is important that events like the Oyster Festival reach out to local children so that they can experience the diversity of food that Cornwall uniquely has to offer. We need to reconnect young people to local food and its fantastic possibilities. I believe there is a lot we can do to help create a dining room experience in our schools so that pupils can see food as more than just a pit-stop convenience.”

The pilot will see well known local chef Arty Williams from The Cove restaurant at Maenporth Beach, demonstrating the preparation of oysters, mussels and scallops and allowing the children to experience for themselves how good they taste.

“I want to showcase products from rivers and along the shoreline so that children can taste what is literally on their doorstep.” said Arty “Healthy eating is all about balance and diversity, hence the importance of introducing children to foods such as local shellfish.”

Arty will also be offering the opportunity for six children from the Healthy Eating Group to support his cookery demonstrations in the marquee on Events Square later at the Falmouth Oyster Festival.

The afternoon will also see the head chef from the Greenbank Hotel Falmouth, Sanjay Kumar, offering a taste of one of his signature dishes - Cornish cider cured salmon, with salad sourced from Flushing. The chefs will be supported by West Country Fruit Sales, who will be outlining the ways that fruit and vegetables, much of which is grown locally, can form part of our healthy diet.

The audience for this unique festival of food will be made up of the Marlborough School Parliament Healthy Eating Group, parents and the school’s own kitchen staff. The fact that such prestigious local chefs as Arty and Sanjay together with a company the size of West Country Fruit are prepared to provide a demonstration such as this, shows how important food professionals consider the need to get the message across to children.

It is hoped that the project will not only be replicated across all schools in Falmouth next year, but will also help to set up increased links between schools and local food producers and restaurants to further benefit the healthy eating agenda for children.