I crossed the Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick to P.E.I on September 14 with visions of consuming my share of seafood at the P.E.I. International Shellfish Festival later that day. After settling into our room and freshening up after a long day on the road, my travelling companion and I headed off to the festival grounds. I hadn’t eaten much that day for fear of not having room for the feast that awaited me.
When I first heard of the festival, I envisioned a large outdoor venue bustling with activity—eateries by the water with menus offering full course seafood dishes and craft beers and off course, music. So, I must say that I was disappointed when I arrived to discover what was essentially a trade show housed under one very large tent. There was a cover charge to enter—I can’t recall now how much it was. At the main entrance and at various locations inside, tokens were sold to be used as currency. That concept in itself seemed reasonable.
Inside the tent was a large stage and booths from where vendors sold their products, everything from deep fried lobster tails to seafood chowder, oysters and strawberry shortcake. There were a couple of beer brands available that caught my eye right away. I have to say that I found the food servings to be small for the price. They were more like samplers. I did rather gorge myself when it was announced that oysters were being sold for a buck each.
After a couple of beers and a sampling of seafood, we decided it was time to leave. Just as we were heading for the door, a band took to the stage. We decided some good music and another beer would be good reason to hang around awhile longer.
Tomato/Tomato was the name of the band, a male/female duo from New Brunswick (John and Lisa McLaggan) along with a couple of musician friends for accompaniment. They were awesome. John played guitar while Lisa strummed a washboard while heel kicking the base drum, and they both sang. They played a folksy/country style of music and incorporated a ton of positive energy into their performance. I could have listened to them all night, but alas, their set was over. We decided to stay anyway. There was another band coming up soon.
In the meantime there was the international chef challenge that would entertain us. I have never watched a cooking competition before and really didn’t think that it would interest me, and it didn’t, too much. I did sit through it and I did find myself rallying for one of the competitors. It would have been better if I had been one of the judges sampling the dishes. And then there was the Motto’s Clamato Best Caesar in Town competition. How interesting could that be, I thought. The competitors were professional mixologists and you wouldn’t believe some of the concoctions they produced— abundantly decorated with lobster claws and the like. All of the drinks looked amazing but the only way to taste one was to bid on it—I didn’t have a couple of hundred extra dollars burning a hole in my pocket.
The next band to take the stage was The Royal North, a five piece rock band out of Charlottetown. Again--awesome. Another high energy performance and great music. While watching one of the competitions, I noticed the drummer, Brady MacDonald standing in the crowd and managed to get a quick chat. His look was too interesting not to get a photograph before he had to rush off to start the set.
To top off the night, we watched the oyster shucking competition. I knew that oyster shucking was a thing on P.E.I. but I didn’t realize it was such a big thing. A man named Bob Thompson was selling and shucking oysters at the buck-an-oyster booth and we started chatting. Bob told me that he had been volunteering at the festival for twenty years as an oyster shucker. I asked him if he would be in the oyster shucking competition. He said, “no, I’m not that good.” Off course I was curious to know why a man that had been shucking oysters for over twenty years wouldn’t be good enough to be in an oyster shucking competition. Bob just laughed and said, “these guys are professionals. They're here by invite only.” That wasn’t exactly true. The competition that we watched was for so called, amateurs. They were fast. We wouldn’t be around for the pro category that was taking place on another day.
Overall, it was a great night out. The music and the competitions saved the day for me. For what there was, the food was good. Besides the oysters, I did have a bowl of seafood chowder that was quite tasty. I found the strawberry shortcake to be dry and tasteless.
Would I go again? Yes, if I found myself in Charlottetown during the festival, I would likely go again.
When I first heard of the festival, I envisioned a large outdoor venue bustling with activity—eateries by the water with menus offering full course seafood dishes and craft beers and off course, music. So, I must say that I was disappointed when I arrived to discover what was essentially a trade show housed under one very large tent. There was a cover charge to enter—I can’t recall now how much it was. At the main entrance and at various locations inside, tokens were sold to be used as currency. That concept in itself seemed reasonable.
Inside the tent was a large stage and booths from where vendors sold their products, everything from deep fried lobster tails to seafood chowder, oysters and strawberry shortcake. There were a couple of beer brands available that caught my eye right away. I have to say that I found the food servings to be small for the price. They were more like samplers. I did rather gorge myself when it was announced that oysters were being sold for a buck each.
After a couple of beers and a sampling of seafood, we decided it was time to leave. Just as we were heading for the door, a band took to the stage. We decided some good music and another beer would be good reason to hang around awhile longer.
Tomato/Tomato was the name of the band, a male/female duo from New Brunswick (John and Lisa McLaggan) along with a couple of musician friends for accompaniment. They were awesome. John played guitar while Lisa strummed a washboard while heel kicking the base drum, and they both sang. They played a folksy/country style of music and incorporated a ton of positive energy into their performance. I could have listened to them all night, but alas, their set was over. We decided to stay anyway. There was another band coming up soon.
In the meantime there was the international chef challenge that would entertain us. I have never watched a cooking competition before and really didn’t think that it would interest me, and it didn’t, too much. I did sit through it and I did find myself rallying for one of the competitors. It would have been better if I had been one of the judges sampling the dishes. And then there was the Motto’s Clamato Best Caesar in Town competition. How interesting could that be, I thought. The competitors were professional mixologists and you wouldn’t believe some of the concoctions they produced— abundantly decorated with lobster claws and the like. All of the drinks looked amazing but the only way to taste one was to bid on it—I didn’t have a couple of hundred extra dollars burning a hole in my pocket.
The next band to take the stage was The Royal North, a five piece rock band out of Charlottetown. Again--awesome. Another high energy performance and great music. While watching one of the competitions, I noticed the drummer, Brady MacDonald standing in the crowd and managed to get a quick chat. His look was too interesting not to get a photograph before he had to rush off to start the set.
To top off the night, we watched the oyster shucking competition. I knew that oyster shucking was a thing on P.E.I. but I didn’t realize it was such a big thing. A man named Bob Thompson was selling and shucking oysters at the buck-an-oyster booth and we started chatting. Bob told me that he had been volunteering at the festival for twenty years as an oyster shucker. I asked him if he would be in the oyster shucking competition. He said, “no, I’m not that good.” Off course I was curious to know why a man that had been shucking oysters for over twenty years wouldn’t be good enough to be in an oyster shucking competition. Bob just laughed and said, “these guys are professionals. They're here by invite only.” That wasn’t exactly true. The competition that we watched was for so called, amateurs. They were fast. We wouldn’t be around for the pro category that was taking place on another day.
Overall, it was a great night out. The music and the competitions saved the day for me. For what there was, the food was good. Besides the oysters, I did have a bowl of seafood chowder that was quite tasty. I found the strawberry shortcake to be dry and tasteless.
Would I go again? Yes, if I found myself in Charlottetown during the festival, I would likely go again.
