Oyster Festival Lures Large Crowd

MEDIA RELEASE 22 MAY 2011

Oyster Festival Lures Large Crowd

The appeal of the Bluff Oyster was again evident when the 2011 Bluff Oyster & Food Festival was held in Bluff on Saturday.

A crowd close to capacity flocked to the venue on Bluff's foreshore in perfect autumn weather with locals and visitors alike giving the Festival high praise, many saying the event was the best ever.

Festival Chairman John Edminstin was rapt. "I am very happy with every facet of the day. Everything went extremely well," he said. Edminstin also paid tribute to his committee and all those who had contributed to the Festival.

Prime Minister John Key, a huge fan of Bluff Oysters, paid his second visit to the Festival in three years and thoroughly enjoyed himself ensuring he had his share of the iconic Bluff Oyster.

Festival guests Sarah Bradley and Astar of the TV One's 'Good Morning' show also enjoyed their Festival experience and were warmly received by the huge crowd, posing for numerous photographs throughout the day.

Greg Johnson jetted in to perform thanks to a grabaseat New Zealand Music Month promotion while the variety of entertainers on stage kept a large crowd around the outdoor stage until the end of the day.

The event began with the traditional Piping In Of The Oyster followed by a short opening ceremony and the Bluff Community School Kapa Haka performance and from that moment on the Festival was 'full on.'

The unique oyster events - featuring opening and eating contests along with the fashion sections - were again a huge drawcard. Keith Lovett of Bluff broke his own New Zealand oyster opening record on his way to reclaiming his New Zealand Oyster Opening title. Lovett powered his way through 50 Bluff Oysters in 2 minutes 24 seconds lowering the mark from his previous best of 2.27. Lovett also took out the Veterans and Blindfold races. Lovett, of Direct Oysters, headed off Ricci Grant and 2010 champion Clive Westwood both of Barnes Oysters to win the Open title. Lovetts long reign of Open titles had been broken by Westwood last year when his knife bent in the final.

Victoria Pearsey of Barnes won the Women's Open from Here Witehira while the Barnes Oysters team of Vic Pearsey, Clive Westwood, Keith Dawson and Ricci Grant won the Factory Relay race.

Perennial champion Tom Sawyer of Invercargill maintained his legendary status as he devoured his Bluff Oysters quicker than any of his opposition in the Celebrity Oyster Eating race while in the new Open and Eat section there was a husband and wife quinella as Keith Gillies of Milton narrowly defeated his spouse, Sarah Gillies.

In another new innovation this year an Oyster Eating heat was held for Festival sponsors, Brenda Nom of the SBS Bank taking the honours.

MaryAnne Christie of Invercargill won the Kayes Bakery Supreme Creativity Award after she was judged the best from all the section winners. Once again this year the quality was extremely high throughout all categories of the Oyster Sack Fashion and the Foveaux Fantasy. Christie's creation had won the Open Section of the Foveaux Fantasy while Annabel Kennedy and Elizabeth Turner of Southland Girls High School won the Secondary Section and Kiriama Russell, Awatea Nicholas, Kaysha Moody and Leon Koufis of Bluff Community School won the Primary Section. In the Oyster Sack Fashion Jane McKenzie of Bluff won the Open Section while Zoe Hurley and Ashley Sinclair of SGHS took out the Secondary School segment.

Once again festival goers enjoyed the many food and beverage stalls on site as the bulk of the 30,000 Bluff Oysters supplied for the Festival were lapped up along with other tasty offerings.
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