Southeastern Connecticut Has an Oyster Festival Too You Know

Sometimes when I write a 'Best _____ in Connecticut'-type of article, I'll get a commenter saying "Hey, you know Middlesex and New London County exist, right? Correct, the majority overlooks you, but I don't. For example: All of Connecticut knows about the Milford and Norwalk Oyster Festivals, but do you know of the Niantic Bay Oyster Festival?

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I guess it's easy to feel left out of the Connecticut media landscape if you live in the Southeastern portion of our state. Most of our mass media outlets are in Hartford, New Haven, Danbury, Waterbury, and Stamford/Norwalk. I love going to fairs and festivals, and I love seafood, and the Milford and Norwalk Oyster Festivals were the only oyster festivals around here that I've heard of. They're massive annual events, with national-level musical acts, that draw thousands of attendees.

Well New Londoners, I dug a little deeper after reading a Southeastern Connecticut defender comment this morning, and discovered that Connecticut has not just those two ouster festivals, you have one too, The Niantic Bay Oyster Festival. 2023 is the 5th annual, and honestly, this is the one that I want to go to this year. It's a one day event, slated for September 23, 2023 from noon to 6PM on the St. John's Green at 400 Main Street in Niantic.

The 49th Annual Milford Oyster Festival is a one-day event, it's happening on Saturday August 19 in downtown Milford, and they've booked Lou Gramm to headline. The 45th Annual Norwalk Seaport Association Oyster Festival is the big boy, it's three days - September 8-10, and they've booked the lead singer of Rascal Flatts for the upcoming event.

The only reason I go to an oyster festival is to eat oysters, Niantic, here I come.