The time of year most of the Oyster Bay community has been waiting for is getting near: the 32nd annual Oyster Festival is about three weeks away, an event that is expected to draw 200,000 people to the hamlet over the course of the weekend. A pre-festival kick-off press conference was held on Friday, Sept. 18, along the waterfront at Theodore Roosevelt Park in Oyster Bay, hosted by the Rotary Club of Oyster Bay and the Oyster Bay Charitable Fund.
“The Oyster Festival is a project of the Rotary Club of Oyster Bay, and we’re all volunteers who basically run this festival. What we do is give an opportunity for other not-for-profits and charities to have a fundraiser and enhance the Oyster Bay community,” said Jim Fuccio, co-chairman of the festival. “This is probably the largest waterfront festival on the East Coast and probably the largest fundraiser of its kind.”
Len Rothberg, the Oyster Festival event coordinator, introduced the other folks involved in the festival, including Oyster Bay Town Councilwoman Rebecca Alesia, who bought the first raffle ticket, a tradition at the kick-off event.
“It’s going to be a wonderful afternoon and evening of Oct. 17 and Oct. 18,” said Rothberg.
He mentioned the rides and games from Newton Shows and the oyster eating and oyster shucking contest sponsored by Newton Shows on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 2 p.m. at the West End Avenue stage.
“There will be 40 different food booths, including the stars of the weekend—the locally grown oysters,” said Rothberg. “You can have oysters raw, you can have oysters fried, you can have oysters in a stew, but you’ve gotta have the oysters, they’re great.”
A new aspect of the festival will be floating on the water: the world’s largest rubber duck, Mother Duck, which is just over six stories tall and weighs 11 tons.
“She will be coming and making Oyster Bay her new nest for the fall,” said Rothberg.
Also in attendance were Lou Bonnanzio, the Town of Oyster Bay NFL “Punt, Pass & Kick” representative; former NY Giant Sean Landeta; Flavio Ferri, general manager of the Long Island Rough Riders; Pedro Suarez, the senior account executive for the New York City Football Club. Ryan Star performed the National Anthem.
James Werner, the youth sports activity coordinator for the festival, spoke about the sports component of the weekend.
“By adding the athletics component to the festival, we’ve done a nice job of expanding the program over the last four years. This year we will be adding the NFL, as part of the ‘Punt, Pass & Kick’ competition and we’ll have about 120 student athletes on the field, ages 6 to 15. The top 10 winners of each age class will be advancing to MetLife Stadium to compete in a Giants pre-game event on Dec. 11, so a lot to look forward to.”
The Oyster Festival will take place on Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days. Admission to the festival is free. Look for the official guide to the festival in the Enterprise-Pilot next month.
