Snow Hill Oyster Roast celebrates a variety of seafood, supports local business community

SNOW HILL, Md.- “Everybody participates, and everybody pitches in. It’s the essence of a community event right here,” Chisholm said.

Whether you like your oysters raw, fried, or topped with cheddar and bacon the choice was yours.

Sunday, the 12th annual Snow Hill Oyster Roast made a big return. “Right now, we’re expecting just over 900 people to come to downtown Snow hill to enjoy oysters, seafood, shrimp, scallops, pull pork, french fries, you name it,” Chisholm said.

“If you put that into perspective, Snow Hill has less than 2,000 residents. We’ve got roughly at a 50% increase in just one day,” Harrison Senior Living CEO Harrison Saunders said.

Around 15,000 oysters were shucked. Although those were the star of the day, the town also highlighted its growing business community. “The idea is that everybody would come in and see businesses that exists here and get a little bit of a taste of what we can do as a community also,” Saunders said.

For the non-oyster fans, Baywater Seafood served up their steamed scallops and shrimp.

Now in operation for 2 years, Owner Matt Holloway tells us they’ve truly been embraced by the local community. “It’s got the small-town vibe but it’s kind of seeing a revitalization right now or a little resurgence. There’s a lot of energy here right now and we’ve got a Mayor that’s very dynamic. I think good things are happening here,” Holloway said.

With the extra foot traffic, Lee Chisholm with the Snow Hill Chamber of Commerce says the event also gives them the opportunity to showcase what the town has to offer. “This is really just encouragement and a marketing piece for Snow Hill to show that there’s something going on here. We would really love for you to come back and spend a night or eat at our restaurants,” Chisholm said.

The event continues to see much growth, which is why organizers tell us they plan to continue adding more vendors in upcoming years.