Snow Hill holds Snow Hills 1st annual seafood festival, brings huge success
SNOW HILL, Md. – After 10 successful years of hosting the annual Oyster Roast in Snow Hill, the chamber of commerce wanted to bring another staple to the community.
“With this event being so popular, why don’t we mirror it and have a fall version and expand the menu to be just general seafood,” says Joe Laque, Executive Director of the Snow Hill Area Chamber of Commerce.
The first annual Seafood Festival brought on Saturday brought oyster empanadas, steamed shrimp, fish fry, raw oysters, and of course beer. We’re told, once people heard about the event, tickets were selling like hotcakes or hot seafood.
Laque says, more importantly, it brought the town the chance to showcase its businesses.
“So bringing all these out-of-town visitors to the town, really gives a chance to show the progress the town has made.”
Meanwhile, the owner of a local business called Harrison Senior Living, Harrison Saunders says, “Everyone is just so relieved to have an event like this to be able to get back out, have some sense of normalcy after a long 18 months to two years of a very, very difficult time.”
Saunders says the town’s close-knit community is highlighted during events like these. He says, being able to celebrate all businesses, seafood, and some normalcy is wonderful.
“I think we’ve taken it to a whole new level and I think that it’s very evident as you go through town. You can see the businesses, the storefronts are filling back up again.” Laque adds, “It’s nice having people come and seeing our shop windows filling up with new businesses, old businesses still being there. It’s just great to expose people to the Snow Hill that’s here today.”
However, Saunders tells 47 ABC, with this being the first year it’s also a learning experience, and slowly growing the event is key moving forward. “But we don’t want to fill it so quickly that we lose the charm of the event itself which is something we’ve been able to maintain over the last 10 years really,” says Harrison.
Laque also preferences the need to help one another to build each up in the community. “They support each other and the people here just love this event, they love seeing new customers come out, and they love the exposure for the town and we love being able to facilitate that.”
We’re also told, the town of Snow Hill is gearing up to bring back the Oyster Fest in the spring, and can’t wait to make plans for next fall’s second annual Seafood Festival. They say they want to grow both events, while also highlighting all businesses.
