The Narooma Oyster Festival was set in May to harvest a bumper crop and draw a record crowd, but the COVID-19 pandemic shut that door.
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However, organisers are asking oyster lovers up and down the coast to hold their own lock-down lounge room festival on Saturday, May 2.
The festival is always a spectacle, with its fiercely contested oyster shucking contests and weigh-ins. People watch and listen intently at celebrity chef masterclasses and crowd out Oyster Alley to taste oysters from estuaries from Nowra to the Victorian border.
So organisers have decided to beam a visual experience into homes this year.
Festival chair Cath Peachey said fans are encouraged to buy NSW South Coast oysters from their favourite local oyster farmer to enjoy at home while watching a special documentary featuring celebrity chef Paul West.
"The oysters are delicious this year - creamy, plump and there are plenty of them. They certainly didn't get the memo that the Festival has been postponed to next year," Ms Peachey said.
"We want people to enjoy oysters at home this year as if they were at the Festival experiencing Oyster Ally.
"It's a way we can get behind our oyster farmers and mark what would have been the 2020 Festival."
The documentary features Mr West visiting oyster farmers from NSW South Coast estuaries Clyde River, Wagonga Inlet, Pambula Lake and Merimbula.
"The Far South Coast is one of Australia's most magnificent landscapes with an abundance of tidal lakes and estuaries, each of which produces a unique expression of the rock oyster," Mr West said.
"In collaboration with the Narooma Oyster Festival, we shot a short documentary visiting four key waterways in a seaplane to pull oysters straight out of the water and taste the difference firsthand."
See the trailer for the documentary below:
Visit the Festival website www.naroomaoysterfestival.com for a list of farmers selling their NSW South Coast oysters to the public.
The documentary will be released on Saturday 2 May. The link will be available on the Festival's website and official social media pages.
The Narooma Oyster Festival will be back in 2021 - with the Community Night and Long Table Dinner taking place on Friday, 30 April and the main event happening on Saturday, 1 May, 2021.
Despite the setback this year, Ms Peachey said partners Australia's Oyster Coast, Eurobodalla Shire Council, Club Narooma, Whale Coast Realty and Southern Phone Company supporting the vision of the Festival board to position the NSW South Coast as a foodie destination and Narooma as the rock oyster capital.
"Our partners have been amazing - their local leadership this year has kept us in business with a keen eye to the future," said Ms Peachey.
"A massive thank you also to our Festival visitors, many of whom have transferred their accommodation bookings to the 2021 date. It is a terrific show of commitment and recognises all the work our volunteers, stallholders, partners and event team put into the 2020 Festival.
"I'll be kicking back at home with Wagonga Inlet rock oysters watching the documentary on 2 May. I hope you do too."