Hilton Head’s Oyster Festival is sold out this weekend. COVID-19 put a limit on tickets
If you learned Hilton Head Island’s Oyster Festival was sold out last year, you wouldn’t have been surprised. Usually, nearly 2,000 people attend the two-day festival on the island, among the most popular events of the year.
But the singular all-you-can-eat oyster event is scheduled to take place this Friday, and once again, it’s sold out.
The festival sent an email Monday morning to sell the remaining tickets and was quickly cleaned out. The event, to be held outside at the Coastal Discovery Museum’s pavilion, is capped at 250 attendees.
The oyster festival is the first major public event to be held on Hilton Head during the coronavirus pandemic. Although fall is typically a wildly popular festival season, the island’s major parks have been quiet this season as people socially distance and stay home.
Breaking up the quiet fall season, the oyster festival is preparing to serve 45 bushels of oysters, 124 pounds of shrimp, 75 pounds of pulled pork, 30 pounds of smoked sausage, 20 gallons of seafood chowder and 15 gallons of chili on Friday night, according to caterer Roy Prescott.
Prescott, whose business Roy’s Cafe and Catering has catered the festival for the last four years, said the way his staff is preparing is very different due to the pandemic. They will all wear masks and gloves at the event, and all food and condiments will be served in single-use plastic containers and be pre-portioned.
The steamed oysters, the hallmark of the festival, will still be served in buckets. Two-ounce portions of cocktail sauce and individual packages of saltine crackers will replace communal accouterments.
The event doesn’t reach the threshold of attendees to need to register with the S.C. Department of Commerce or the threshold to require a special event permit from the Town of Hilton Head Island. Any events with more than 250 attendees require that registration and permit.
Prior to the pandemic, the town required only a special event permit for events with more than 500 attendees on public property such as parks. In late October, town leaders first approved an ordinance to lower the number of attendees allowed without a permit to 250 — an ordinance that would effectively require more events to get special event permits. That ordinance needs another reading and affirmative vote at the council’s Nov. 17 meeting to pass.
Asked why the Island Recreation Association is moving forward with the event even as other outdoor festivals on Hilton Head have canceled, director Frank Soule said, “we’re just following the guidelines that were put forth that allow us the opportunity to hold this event,” referencing guidance from the state’s “Accelerate SC” COVID-19 response plan that allows events with up to 250 attendees.
Soule said there will be hand-sanitizing stations and temperature checkpoints at the event, along with the other Accelerate SC requirements. But he acknowledged that his group’s is the first big public event on the island.
“I know there are going to be a be a lot of eyes on us,” he said. “But we’ve seen some other events at restaurants and other things. ... They’ve gone well.”
