Oyster Festival at Whitstable

Whitstable's annual Oyster Festival opened last weekend with the Landing of the Oysters  and their blessing by the  Rev Simon Tillotson from St Peters Church, the seafarers church in Whitstable, which recocnizes St. James of Compostela, the patron saint of Oystermen.

Many thousands of people come to the festival which has a week long programme of events. Festival website here

The tide was in for the landing of the oysters and I was struck by how close the various boats were to the shore. I also had a sense of how lovely it must be  for all the children and youngsters in boats enjoying themselves.

After the blessing of the oysters the cart and clergy and dignitaries joined the parade through the town.  Some great paper mache heads and fish and the two giant figures along with a wonderful steam punkish  metal crustacean vehicle.

Along the harbour were hundreds of stalls, most with food and drink for all the crowds. There were the longest ques at the oyster stalls, which seems right as it was an oyster festival. 

It was very busy  and very hot, I needed to cool off in the small areas of shade  every so often.
But I enjoyed the atmosphere, the parade and seeing the landing of the oysters.

Exhibition at the Show Off Gallery Whitstable and photos of Whitstable.

I've been over to Whitstable to see friends of mine, Marcus Browne and Matthew Usmar Lauder's show. It was held in the Show Off Gallery in the town near the harbour.

A really good show of work including landscapes, fish still lives and icon type portraits and figures, some in decorated boxes.Matthew's website here

I really enjoyed seeing the work and meeting up with them, the work is also on display online.Check out Matthew's facebook page.

Walking around the harbour I took a few photographs and did a bit of beachcombing, one of my favourite activities and justifiable living near the coast now. Some of the shells and stones will be used in future projects.

I was interested to see that there were piles of oyster shells for recycling back to the oyster beds(.Whitstable is famous for its oysters)
  Apparantly it helps the young  oysters, who find the shells one of the best surfaces to attatch themselves to. And it stops the erosion of the oyster beds.