The Lowcountry Oyster Festival

Sunday January 31, 2010 - 10:30am-5pm

Tickets are $10 in advance or can be purchased at the gate for $12. To purchase advance tickets online, click here.

The Oyster Festival is a tribute to the mighty mollusk so many of us know and love. It is little wonder that the Oyster Festival has been the highlight of Charleston’s “January-doldrums” for the past 25 years. And for 20 consecutive years, the Lowcountry Oyster Festival has been named one of the “top 20 events in the southeast” by the Southeastern Tourism Society.

MAIN EVENT LOCATION:  Since 1991 the Greater Charleston Restaurant Association has hosted the Lowcountry Oyster Festival’s Main Event on the grounds of historic Boone Hall Plantation. Located on 700+acres, just north of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, Boone Hall is one of America’s oldest working plantations.  It is a flexible venue which can comfortably accommodate groups from 30 to 15,000. The Oyster Festival uses multiple tents and a permanent stage on the plantation’s spacious back lawn… and acres of parking on the polo fields.

Sunday, January 31st…An oyster-lover’s dream … It’s early on a cold Sunday morning and two gigantic tractor trailers filled with 65,000 pounds of oysters roll onto the back lawn of Boone Hall Plantation... the prelude to the Lowcountry Oyster Festival.  Highlights of Sunday’s “rain or shine” Main Event include the legendary “Oyster Shucking & Eating Contest,” selection of domestic and imported beers, live bands on the Main Stage and a Kids Corner (complete with pony rides and jump castles).

GCRA SPONSOR: The Greater Charleston Restaurant Association represents the largest private sector employer in the tri-county area. The association serves as the voice of the Charleston Area food service industry on government and public relations issues. Annual fundraising events like the Taste of Charleston and Lowcountry Oyster Festival, both sponsored by the GCRA, enable them to give back to the community. To date, the GCRA has donated more than $1,000,000 to the Ronald McDonald House, Hollings Cancer Center, and Charleston County Schools Science Materials Resource Center.