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Festival · Galway city

The Galway International Oyster Festival

September is the first month of the oyster season, and on its last weekend Galway eats them by the thousand at the Galway International Oyster Festival. It began in 1954 as a hotel manager's idea for filling a quiet month, with 34 people at the first lunch, and grew into a festival the Sunday Times ranked among the twelve greatest shows on earth and the AA Travel Guide listed among Europe's seven best.

Checked against the source on 2026-09-19.

A stall selling Galway native flat oysters in Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival 2025
A stall selling Galway native flat oysters in Galway International Oyster and Seafood Festival 2025
Thoslee, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Eyre Square, The Quays, Galway City Museum on the 3D model; tap a pin for its page and directions.

Brian Collins's idea

Brian Collins managed the Great Southern Hotel on Eyre Square, now the Hotel Meyrick, and wanted something to bring visitors to Galway in September. The Galway native oyster was the obvious thing, unique to the city and county. He took the idea to Guinness and to Patrick M. Burke's bar in Clarinbridge, and in 1954 the first festival was held for 34 guests.

From Clarinbridge to the city

For thirty years the festival split its day between Clarinbridge village and the Great Southern in the evening. From the mid-1980s everything moved into the city centre, with a red-and-white striped marquee by the Spanish Arch. The oyster-opening championship, the parade and the weekend of music and shellfish have run every September since.

Questions people ask

When is the Galway Oyster Festival?
On the last weekend of September, the first month of the native oyster season.
Where is the Galway Oyster Festival held?
In Galway city centre since the mid-1980s; before that in Clarinbridge by day and at the Great Southern Hotel by night.
When did the Galway Oyster Festival start?
In 1954, created by Brian Collins of the Great Southern Hotel with Guinness and Burke's bar in Clarinbridge, with 34 people at the first event.

Written from Wikipedia, "Galway International Oyster Festival" (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-09-19, and from the OpenStreetMap places on the model. Nothing has been added from memory; follow the source for its footnotes.