Galway International Oyster & Seafood Festival 2015 celebration in Ireland

TRAVEL & TOURISM

Welcome to the 61st Galway International 

Oyster & Seafood Festival in Ireland

by Shrutee K / DNS

Each year on the last weekend of September, Galway city celebrates the Galway International Oyster & Seafood Festival and the 2015 celebration on Ireland’s famed Wild Atlantic Way is going to be about much more than fresh, raw on the half shell with just a squeeze of lemon oysters. The most internationally recognised Irish festival after St Patrick’s Day is considered the ultimate gourmet seafood, and this year foodies can feed their passion over four days from 24^th  – 27th  September 2015.

The world’s longest running oyster festival on the world’s longest defined coastal touring route is once again inviting the citizens of the globe to come and party – it can only mean Galway, Ireland.

Galway will be immersed in seafood trails, foodie talks and tasting events in the city’s best restaurants, pubs and bars, as well as a feast of music, culture, cooking demonstrations and much more.

Live music, sensational seafood, mouth-watering dining and the National Oyster Opening (shucking) Championship will kick start the weekend’s celebrations on the Friday. Saturday means the ’worlds’ – the highly competitive World Oyster Opening Championships in a non-stop afternoon of entertainment and festival fun. There will be plenty of noise, colour and excitement as ’shuckers’ from 16 countries vie for the world title. The lively Galway Oyster Festival Parade will then weave its way through the narrow medieval streets to the home of the city’s seafood trade, the Spanish Arch.

The unique Masquerade Mardi Gras will extend the party long into the night as fine fare and fabulous finery come together with a carnival of masked revellers led by a lively band through the streets of Galway. The final day of festivities on Sunday 27 September closes with Féile na Mara, which means Wild Atlantic Tastes. A family day catering for adults and children, it features Festival Marquee music, live cooking demos and plenty of entertainment for the children including face painting and circus skills workshops.

While the festival is built around the area’s sensational Wild Atlantic Way seafood, it’s the spirited party atmosphere in the streets, bars and restaurants of Galway that brings people back year after year and which has prompted the Sunday Times to call the festival “one of the 12 greatest shows on earth".

Galway’s fascinating history encapsulated in impressive architecture is worth exploring, as is a charming bohemian Latin Quarter packed with shops and eateries, and a lively traditional music scene. Post-festival there are plenty of reasons to take an extended stay with a few days on the Wild Atlantic Way.