The 21st annual Pemaquid Oyster Festival returns to Mine Oyster Restaurant, 16 Wharf St.,  in downtown Boothbay Harbor on Sunday, Sept. 29 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The festival features $2 oysters from eight Damariscotta River farms, live music, an oyster-shucking contest and an exhibition tent.

The Damariscotta River is often called "the Napa Valley of oysters," and its warm, nutrient-rich, clean, high-salinity waters produce some of the world's finest oysters. The Pemaquid Oyster Company will be joined by fellow Damariscotta River growers: Mook Sea Farm, Norumbega Oyster Inc., Dodge Cove Marine Farm, Glidden Point Oyster Farms, Blackstone Point Oysters, Pleasant Cove Oyster Farm and Heron Island Oyster Company. The festival provides an opportunity to sample oysters from these Damariscotta River farms and meet the growers who cultivate them.

Festival entertainment begins at noon and brings a variety of music to two stages, including: the Hadacol Bouncers, a six-piece traditional New Orleans-style jazz band; Haggard and Cashed, a vintage country and western-swing band with triple fiddles; Rites of Swing, a gypsy-style jazz quintet playing music of the 1920s and 1930s; the Oystermen, an oyster-farmer trio performing regional fiddle tunes and maritime songs and Lauren Sheehan, a folk-blues songster from Portland, Oregon. 

The oyster-shucking contest is a crowd favorite bringing together some of New England's leading oyster shuckers competing on time and quality for a cash prize, including defending champion Chad Egeland from Scales Restaurant in Portland.

The exhibit tent will host local marine and educational organizations such as Carpenter's Boat Shop, Bigelow Lab, Maine Aquaculture Association, Coastal Rivers, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center and Maine Sea Grant. The tent will also showcase area artists and artisans who produce seafood products and oyster art.

On Saturday, Sept. 28 there will also be a five-course oyster dinner with wine pairings curated by award-winning chef Ralph C. Smith at Mine Oyster Restaurant beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets for the dinner and general admission and V.I.P. Festival tickets can be purchased at www.pemaquidoysterfestival.com

Pemaquid Oyster Festival is the primary fundraiser for the Edward A.Myers Marine Conservation Fund. Ed Myers was a South Bristol resident, the first licensed shellfish farmer in the Maine and a mentor to many of the river's early oyster growers. The fund has raised nearly $200,000 and awarded grants to a dozen or more Lincoln County non-profit groups.

For more information visit www.pemaquidoysterfestival.com, the festival's Instagram and Facebook pages, or call 207-571-2366 or write coordinator@pemaquidoysterfestival.com