Last weekend I went to the Austin Oyster Festival with my husband, and we had so much fun! It was my first time attending this food festival (I’m trying to cross off all of the major Austin food festivals off my list.) Here are a few details about this festival, in case you’re new to it:
All about the Austin Oyster Festival
- It’s a 1-day Saturday festival that happens during the month of February.
- Tickets are $60 (regular) or $115 (VIP). The regular tickets include access to the festival, live entertainment, and 6 food tickets. VIP tickets include access to the festival, live music, access to the VIP lounge with private bathrooms, special chef tastings, a craft bar, and perk-filled VIP lounge.
- This year it was at Republic Square Park, but the location has been at the Seaholm lawn in past years.
- If you run out of food tickets, you can buy more at $5/ticket.Â
- Oysters are served in all styles! Raw, grilled, fried, as well as gumbo, shrimp po’boys, spicy creole fries, and more!
^ The VIP entrance had a shorter line. It moved quickly, and it just took us about 5 minutes to get in. I had a flashback of going to the Food and Wine festival back in 2017 and the awful 30 minute line just to get in the front entrance. Thankfully, this festival is smaller and the line moves a lot faster.
^ We lucked out on Saturday with the most beautiful weekend weather! Sunny, 70 degrees, and a soft breeze to keep things cool. It was a great day to spend outdoors with friends.
^ All of the food and drinks cost tickets, and they vary in price. The craft beer (Nate is drinking Bell’s Two Hearted Ale in this pic) was 1 ticket, and most cocktails were also 1 ticket. The Bloody Mary’s were the most expensive at 3 tickets.
^ We sampled a bunch of bites, like a fried oyster Bahn mi, seafood gumbo, and grilled and chilled shrimp, but my favorite bites at the festival were the raw oysters! They had topping bars, but I kept it simple and enjoyed mine with a little squeeze of lemon.
^ We started with east coast oysters (more expensive), then moved to gulf coast oyster (a lot cheaper). The line for the east coast oysters was easily three times as long as gulf coasts.
