Somehow Whitstable got the moniker 'Pearl of Kent' which is particularly cute considering the town has been associated with oysters for hundreds of years.  The Whitstable Oyster Festival is part of this ancient association, a time, since the age of the Normans, when fishermen and dredgers gave thanks for their mixed bounty of the very beautiful and not-so-attractive but very tasty fruits of the sea.  They gave thanks in the slack summer season though, to make sure they had something to give thanks for and now the festival has conveniently been married with the date of the FEAST day of Saint James of Compostella, the patron saint of oysters, which is on the 25th of July. 

Earlier festivities included the blowing up of a boat and a naval battle using soot and flour between the towns millers and sweeps, but now it's a more modern affair of a parade, fire works and nine days of gouging on oysters, but there are still more nautical and traditional events in between the performances, music and market days. 

Whitstable Oyster Festival Website.

Written by  World Reviewer Staff.

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