Leonardtown, Md. — The U.S. Oyster Festival, a staple of Chesapeake Bay traditions, will convene at the St. Mary’s County Fairgrounds on October 18-19, 2025, drawing thousands for its 59th edition. Hosted by the Rotary Club of Lexington Park, the two-day event features the U.S. National Oyster Shucking Championship, local seafood preparations and more than 50 arts and crafts vendors. Tickets went on sale September 19 at usoysterfestival.org.
The festival opens Saturday at 10 a.m. and runs until 6 p.m., with Sunday hours from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the fairgrounds on 42455 Fairgrounds Road. Attendees can expect raw, fried, stewed and scalded oysters from local farms, alongside crab cakes, clam chowder, stuffed ham and other regional dishes. The shucking championship, a highlight since 1980, pits competitors from across the country in a timed contest judged on speed, presentation and oyster quality. The national winner advances to the International Oyster Opening Championship in Galway, Ireland. Registration for the 2025 contest opened recently on the festival website.
Julie Randall, the 2025 Oyster Queen and festival chairperson, described the event as a cornerstone of regional identity. “For 59 years, this festival has been a proud tradition for St. Mary’s County and the Chesapeake Bay region,” she said. “It’s not just a celebration of our seafood—it’s a celebration of our culture, our community, and the incredible skill of America’s best oyster shuckers.”
Live entertainment spans two stages, with performances including the opening “Shuckengrüv” party on Friday evening for those 21 and older. That event carries a $5 cover charge, with proceeds supporting the Rotary Club, and features music from the band Unfinished Business alongside beers from Big Oyster Brewing Company. Family activities fill the grounds on both days, encompassing games, educational exhibits on watermen life and the Chesapeake watershed, and oyster-related demonstrations. Over 20 civic groups operate food booths, turning the festival into a key venue for community fundraising.
Founded in 1967 by the Rotary Club of Lexington Park and the St. Mary’s County Watermen’s Association, the festival began as a modest gathering to honor local oyster heritage and support charities. Early editions drew a few hundred visitors, but by the mid-1970s, expanded promotion boosted attendance to about 25,000 over two days. A 1982 weekend set a record with more than 32,000 people, and recent years have stabilized around 22,000. The event expanded in 1980 with the National Oyster Cook-Off, now in its 45th year for 2025, where entrants compete in categories like hors d’oeuvres, soups and stews, and main dishes for cash prizes. Winners often demonstrate recipes onstage, sharing techniques with crowds.
Proceeds from the festival, the largest collaborative fundraiser in Southern Maryland, benefit scholarships and local nonprofits. The Rotary Club allocates up to $30,000 annually in academic awards for college-bound high school seniors from St. Mary’s County schools. An additional $20,000 supports programs at organizations such as Feed St. Mary’s, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Christmas in April and the Greenwell Foundation. In 2022, the event raised $100,000 for community initiatives, including food pantries and youth services. Over decades, the club has directed more than $700,000 back into the area through these efforts, partnering with groups like St. Vincent de Paul and the Sierra Club.
St. Mary’s County’s role in oyster culture traces to the Chesapeake Bay’s abundant reefs, documented by Capt. John Smith in the early 1600s as lying “as thick as stones.” By the 1850s, Maryland waters yielded 1.5 million bushels yearly, fueling a national industry that employed thousands of watermen and packed ships from ports like Leonardtown. Oysters not only drove the economy but served ecological purposes, with a single adult filtering up to 50 gallons of water daily and reefs providing habitat for fish and crabs. Harvesting methods evolved from hand-tonging to skipjacks, Maryland’s state boat, preserving the bay’s hand-tong prohibition enacted in the 1830s to curb dredging damage.
Challenges emerged in the late 19th century with overharvesting and out-of-state incursions, sparking the “Oyster Wars” and the creation of Maryland’s Oyster Police Force in 1868. Diseases like MSX and Dermo hit in the 1950s and 1960s, slashing populations by 90 percent from historic highs of 15 million bushels annually. Recent restoration has reversed the trend: Maryland’s oyster numbers tripled over the past 20 years, per a 2025 stock assessment by the Department of Natural Resources and University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The state met its Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement goal in August 2025 by completing sanctuaries in five tributaries, including the St. Mary’s River, through efforts by the Oyster Recovery Partnership and Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Billions of juvenile oysters, or spat, have been planted on reefs built with stone, shell and substrates, supported by $3 million in state funding.
In St. Mary’s County, these initiatives bolster watermen and aquaculture, which generates $13 million statewide yearly. Local farms supply festival oysters, and exhibits highlight restoration’s role in cleaner waters and thriving fisheries. The fairgrounds venue, a 50-acre site used for county events since the 1950s, sits amid rolling fields near Leonardtown’s historic courthouse square. Visitors often combine the festival with drives along the Religious Freedom Byway, passing sites like St. Mary’s City, Maryland’s first capital established in 1634.
The 2025 festival underscores ongoing commitments to heritage and habitat. With gates opening soon after tickets launch, organizers anticipate full crowds under clear fall skies typical of Southern Maryland’s October. Follow updates on Facebook and Instagram at nationaloysterfest.
